LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap._\:.v._. Copyright No. 

ShellP.li3. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Reminiscences of School Life 



" The facts of a man's life are of primary 
co7icern only so far as they serve to explain his 
works.'* 





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Reminiscences of School Life 



an autobtograpljg 

By HIRAM ORCUTT, LL.D. 



With an Introduction by General John Eaton 
Ex-U. S. Commissioner of Education 



Cambridge 
Printed by the University Press 










CopyrigJit, 1898, 
By Hiram Orcutt. 

All rights reserved 



7174 



>i*) C 



TO 

S:6e iSihz Cj)oitsant( Pupils 

WHO, DURING FORTY YEARS, SHARED WITH HIM AS 

THEIR TEACHER THE PLEASURES AND 

TRIALS OF SCHOOL LIFE, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. 



Preface 

THIS book is the record of a long 
and eventful school-life experience. 
It treats not of theories, but of facts. It is 
an autobiography, and, as its title indicates, 
records not only the author's experience 
as a practical teacher in the public school, 
academy, and seminary, but also as a pupil 
and student, all covering a period of three- 
quarters of a century. The leading purpose 
of the work is to furnish teachers, school 
officers, parents, and citizens who have an 
interest in our private and public schools, 
object lessons illustrating the principles 
and methods which the author advocated 
in public address, and in his earlier books, 
and adopted in his school management and 
discipline. 

The reminiscences include the incidents 
and anecdotes which interested him all 
vii 



Preface 

along the way in his boyhood and in active 
life. They trace the trials and struggles 
of the poor young man in his efforts to 
gain a liberal education. They take note 
of the changes which the process of evolu- 
tion has wrought in the educational history 
of the country, comparing the old institu- 
tions with the new. The author comments 
upon the condition of these institutions and 
upon their relations to each other, and illus- 
trates his method of dealing with patrons 
and in conducting the different schools over 
which he presided. He discusses the ele- 
ments of success in school life, and esti- 
mates the profit and loss of the poor boy's 
struggles to secure an education. His ex- 
perience as preceptor of large academies and 
seminaries was unique. No one of the 
four institutions under his charge had any 
other means of support than the receipts 
derived from a low rate of tuition, and he 
was never employed on a salary during the 
thirty-eight years of his academic life. 
These institutions gave opportunity for 
experience in managing both mixed and 
viii 



Preface 

separate schools, and enabled him to test 
the merits of each system. Hence, upon 
this subject and upon the higher education 
of women he has expressed positive con- 
victions. 

In connection with his treatment of 
school life as student and teacher he has 
discussed the elements of success, and given 
hints and suggestions for the guidance of 
the inexperienced. In the chapter on other 
educational work he has dwelt upon the 
teacher's relations and obligations to the 
community in which he lives, and the cause 
in which all have a common interest. He 
speaks of the importance of journaHsm, 
educational and professional books, and 
teachers* bureaus as aids to educational 
workers, and of the part he has acted in 
these relations. 

It has been the endeavor of the author 
throughout these pages to emphasize the 
fact that the real end of all education is 
to produce morally trained men and women, 
rather than, except in special cases, scholars. 
Unless this point is kept in mind by the 
ix 



Preface 

teacher throughout his school-life experi- 
ence, the professional element of his chosen 
vocation fails utterly of its chief end, and 
the pedagogue places himself in the same 
class as the mechanic, producing things in- 
stead of creating characters. 

The author trusts that this humble ef- 
fort to contribute to the progress of the 
great cause vital to the perpetuity of our 
free institutions and the welfare of our race, 
to which he early consecrated his life, may 
serve to interest and encourage others who 
may have taken up this important work. 

HIRAM ORCUTT. 
Aprils, 1898. 



Contents 

Page 
Introduction i 

I 

The Old District School 13 

II 

The Old Academy 25 

III 

College Life 31 

College Anecdotes. — Incidents of College Life. — 

My Own College Class. 

IV 

The Student becomes a Schoolmaster 48 

Hard Cases in Discipline. — Later Experiences. — 
The Profit and Loss Estimated. 



The Schoolmaster becomes a Preceptor .... 83 

Thetford Academy. — Thetford Academy's Seventy- 
Fifth Anniversary. — Incidental Occurrences. — North 
Granville Ladies' Seminary. — Glenwood Ladies' Semi- 
nary, — Tilden Ladies' Seminary. — Commencement 
and Dedication. 

VI 
Vital Educational Questions 147 

Elements of Success in School Life. — The Col- 
lege or the University, — Which? — Preparation for 
College and Life : The Duty of the Home, The Duty 
of the Preparatory School. — The Moral Side of 
School Life. 

VII 
Other Educational Work 186 



Introduction 



INVITED to write here a word of 
introduction, my belief in the large 
obligations of the child to the parent, and 
of the pupil to the teacher, prompts me to 
respond with alacrity, — an alacrity all the 
greater because I am not expected to as- 
sent in all things to what the author has 
put down, any more than I was required 
when his pupil to accept blindly his dicta 
as my master; for he always expected 
differences of opinion, and only demanded 
robust thinking responsive to the leadings 
of truth. It was my good fortune to come 
under his influence when I began to have 
aspiration for opportunities to study. The 
way was dark and the obstacles seemed in- 
surmountable : he had some two hundred 
and fifty young men and women under 
his instruction. No endowment either 



Introduction 

paid teachers or aided students. His man- 
agement was the sole resource. When 
considering it I have always marvelled; 
but he had the time and thought for me 
as he had for each of all the others. 
My way opened; I was inspired with 
new hope through him, and further en- 
couraged by his students with whom I 
associated and on whom his influence took 
eflTect. New purposes possessed me ; ob- 
stacles were transformed into aids ; another 
life opened before me. Can I ever repay 
him? 

He has seen fit at the age of fourscore 
and more years to set down so much of 
his experiences and of the opinions which 
he has formed on important subjects. We 
are greatly lacking in the knowledge of the 
personal experiences of teachers. As our 
views of history, in general, are greatly 
helped by the biography of those who 
were its actors, so our best ideas of the 
special history of education must be gained 
by the study of the lives of educators. 
The upward steps in its philosophy will 
be best disclosed through their experi- 



Introduction 

ences and views. The literature of edu- 
cation is multiplying with rapidity, and 
the profession of teaching needs some 
one to do for it what Dr. Sprague did 
for the ministry. Nay, all other pur- 
suits would be benefited by such a service ; 
for all, whatever careers they pursue in 
life, come under the forming hand of the 
teacher. 

A legend has it that " When the temple 
at Jerusalem was completed, King Solomon 
gave a feast to the artificers employed in 
its construction. On unveiling the throne, 
it was found that a smith had usurped the 
seat of honor on the right of the king's 
place, not yet awarded ; whereupon the 
people murmured and the guard rushed 
to cut him down. ' Hold, let him speak,' 
commanded Solomon. ' Thou hast, O 
King, invited all craftsmen but me, yet 
how could these builders have raised the 
temple without the tools I fashioned ? ' 
' True,' decreed Solomon, * the seat is his 
by right.' " Art has seized and preserved 
the idea representing the blacksmith in 
the seat of honor on the right of the 
3 



Introduction 

throne. Teaching is no longer classed as 
menial service. The advance in man*s 
progress is coming to give the seat of 
honor to the teacher who shapes the 
characters for all worthy pursuits, — who 
fits all instruments for the upbuilding of 
the temple of human affairs ; thus teaching 
is coming into its true relation to all other 
pursuits. This book leaves no doubt that 
Dr. Orcutt has, in his day, greatly aided in 
improving the work of the teacher and 
in securing his recognition by his fellows. 
Generally, men divide themselves into two 
classes, — those who do and those who say. 
He has both acted and spoken ; as teacher 
he has taught the pupil in his daily class- 
work ; he has made a career ; he has built 
up institutions ; he has also spoken from 
the platform and the pulpit ; written much 
for the press ; and as the author of books 
he has been widely read, thus greatly ex- 
tending his influence. His inheritance did 
not do this; he started with none of the 
aids of wealth, station, or money of which 
so much is made and upon which so many 
depend. His greatest inheritance was a 
4 



Introduction 

nature strong and healthy, both mentally 
and physically. He was born on a farm, 
and his childhood and youth were occupied 
in tilling the soil, in the rock-ribbed town 
of Acworth, New Hampshire; "All was 
industry from early morn till dewy eve ; " 
few books were accessible, and there were 
limited opportunities for cultivating the 
mind ; but he was in the midst of the cus- 
toms, scenes, and dutiful ideas common in 
a New England community before those 
transformations of its character came which 
have followed the changes incident to the 
introduction of the inventions of the last 
three-quarters of our century. He became 
possessed of the idea of his own improve- 
ment and of service to his fellows and to his 
Maker. It grew with his growth, and has 
extended through his life, binding its acts 
together, — a purpose which, taking hold on 
the throne of God, has carried him through 
his trials and assured his triumphs. He 
could not have had any degree of advanced 
education save as he paid for it out of his 
own earnings ; his course had to be a division 
between existing and improving himself; 
5 



Introduction 

thus only could he fit for college and 
avail himself of collegiate training ; he 
might lament that he could give no more 
time to study; it was a constant struggle 
to answer the question — How little time 
can I devote to existence and how much 
to improving myself? This story gives 
the result. He learned to discriminate 
between the essential and the non-essential, 
to seize the substance and let the shadow 
take care of itself, to economize time and 
power, and to make the best of all things. 
His career has been onward, and illustrates 
the possibilities of American opportunity, 
of New England opportunity. His great 
labors as teacher were, like those of his 
student life, unaided by the usual funds. 
He made his schools; his efficiency was 
their endowment ; his beneficence and not 
the gifts of others furnished the money 
to supplement the means of the hundreds 
of students, men and women, whom he 
aided. 

I would neither ignore nor disparage the 
conditions of education which money may 
furnish in the libraries, buildings, and en- 
6 



Introduction 

dowments and other aids. It has been my 
pleasure to improve every opportunity to 
urge these services upon those who possess 
wealth. Indeed, wealth must share in 
giving the means, and thus assuring for 
the young of all conditions the best culture 
of all grades from the lowest to the highest, 
if its possessors would enjoy the prosperity 
and security possible only in an advanced 
order of society. But with this urgency I 
would have the fact understood that there 
is something in education which money 
cannot furnish. I would not have for- 
gotten the truth set forth in Garfield's 
argument in the case of "Brains vs. Brick 
and Mortar." I wish that all might under- 
stand what he meant when he was ready to 
put all appliances aside and declared his 
preference for a plank or a plain table and 
Mark Hopkins as a teacher at one end if 
he could be the pupil at the other. In all 
treatment of the conditions of learning jus- 
tice demands discrimination. When wisely 
urging permanency, strength, great equip- 
ment and endowment, we must not forget 
what temporary academies and colleges 
7 



Introduction 

under masters of teaching have accom- 
plished; nor what our aspiring Franklins 
and Lincolns have done without coming 
within the sacred influence of a college 
curriculum ; nor must we ignore the in- 
fluence of the small college, as we have 
good reasons to remember — and especially 
from the fact that it was not a great in- 
stitution at the time but a small college — 
Dartmouth in its infancy, that trained 
Webster, the mightiest thinker of his 
period, whose defence of the college he 
loved led to a judicial decree which under 
our National Constitution has been the 
rock of safety for all chartered institutions 
whether great or small. The students' 
aspiration and the teacher's power to awake 
to better thought and life are the essentials. 
To inspire the pupil to his best effort was 
pre-eminently the power of our author. In 
this light we should contemplate his life. 
A thought enters his boyish mind of im- 
proving himself; he struggles amid hard- 
ships without the aids upon which most 
predicate success ; he works with his hands 
and toils as a teacher, to earn the money 
8 



Introduction 

to pay the expenses of his course of study. 
He learns self-restraint, and that he can 
live on what others would waste; he suc- 
ceeds where others have failed ; he revives 
old and opens new seats of learning ; he 
fills them with eager students, meeting all 
demands for expenses without endow- 
ment and without the usual bids for ex- 
clusively wealthy patronage ; indeed, his 
tuitions were so moderate that all, even the 
plain people, could pay them. His great 
cares are not made excuses for neglect of 
other duties. As head of the family he is 
the devoted husband and father, greatly 
revered and tenderly loved ; as citizen he 
is alert and ready to administer the respon- 
sibilities demanded of him ; chosen as leg- 
islator by his townsmen, as a statesman he 
is ready for the higher issues and seizes the 
opportunity to found a normal school for 
the State; in business affairs he is at once 
ready for large demands and attentive to 
details ; in the Church he is reverent and 
active in its duties ; and amid all he finds 
time to use his pen. To get some measure 
of his influence, mark the procession which 
9 



Introduction 

he leads ! At the front are the hundreds 
.trained by him in the district school; next 
come the thousands in the academies 
under his management ; while these are 
followed by those who have been otherwise 
directly influenced by his touch or his pen ; 
and following these are the untold numbers 
who have felt the influences set in motion 
by him as they have multiplied themselves 
in this and other lands through those in- 
spired to their worthy work under God by 
him. How many rise up to call him 
blessed ! Have they any doubt that his 
is a life worth living P They know how 
he has taught patriotism, piety, and duty 
in the smallest and largest aff'airs. They 
know how he has in his day added to the 
security of the family, the Church, and the 
State those foundations divinely laid, upon 
which all things depend that are desirable 
in human affairs. 

I am one of those who rejoice in his 
triumphs ; one of those gratified to seek 
the general acknowledgment of the fitness 
of the laurels which crown his brow as he 
passes down his decHning years; and I 

lO 



Introduction 

pray that this story may extend his useful- 
ness for good, and that there may be an 
increase of Hiram Orcutts for coming 
generations. 

JOHN EATON. 

Washington, D. C. 



Reminiscences 
of School Life 

I 

THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL 

MORE than three-quarters of a cen- 
tury has elapsed since the writer 
entered his first school, as a pupil ; yet 
everything associated with that school is 
as fresh in memory as the occurrences 
of yesterday. The old schoolhouse, the 
teachers, the schoolmates, and the incidents 
of that period of school life are photo- 
graphed in distinct outlines on memory's 
page. 

That antiquated schoolhouse stood on 
"Clark Hill," in the town of Acworth, 
New Hampshire. It was built upon a 
rock, and surrounded by boulders which 
the icebergs of another age had scattered 
13 



Reminiscences of School Life 

there. The only shade-trees that adorned 
the playground were those which the 
sturdy woodman had spared in clearing the 
forest. The building was rude and simple 
in its construction. It had three small 
windows on as many sides, each of which 
had a heavy board shutter to keep out the 
light during vacations, and to conceal the 
bats in term-time. They served both 
purposes well. The bats, however, were 
easily captured by the roguish boys, and 
sometimes made trouble for the master. 
The inside arrangements of this school- 
house were unique. On one side was a 
large open fireplace, which with its entrance 
door occupied the whole space. In this 
great heater, in the cold winter, not less 
than half a cord of green wood was con- 
sumed each day, roasting half the school 
and leaving the other half nearly frozen 
during the process. The seats and benches 
were made of half-planed hemlock or 
spruce boards, and were arranged on three 
sides of the house, in amphitheatre style. 
The back seats were designed for the older 
boys and girls, and the front seats for the 
14 



The Old District School 

little ones sent to school to relieve the 
mothers of their care at home. These 
seats were so wide that the child's back 
could not be supported, and so high that 
his feet could not touch the floor. A 
more complete rack of torture and machine 
for making cripples could hardly be in- 
vented. Yet these children were kept 
upon these hard benches all day long, 
relieved only by short recesses, with noth- 
ing to do but to play, if they dared. 

In one respect that old schoolhouse was 
a model of its kind, far superior to many 
of more modern construction ; it was well 
ventilated. Its huge open fireplace, spa- 
cious chimney, loose windows, and half- 
nailed covering boards invited the passing 
breeze and gave free circulation to the pure 
mountain air. No pupil ever contracted 
consumption from breathing impure atmos- 
phere in that temple of knowledge. This 
cannot be said of many elegantly con- 
structed and steam-heated schoolrooms of 
modern times, if special attention has not 
been given to scientific ventilation. 

Another advantage enjoyed by the pupils 
15 



Reminiscences of School Life 

of that ancient school on " Clark Hill " 
was the exercise necessary in going and 
coming. Added to the rough and tumble 
of schoolboy sports, and battles of snow- 
balling, some pupils lived two miles away, 
making four miles' walk each day over 
rough or snow-drifted roads. The dinner- 
basket was a necessity ; and even the rats 
and mice which had gained residence in 
the old schoolhouse were dependent for 
their living upon the crumbs that fell from 
the benches, when they failed to gain 
access to the full basket. Still we were 
not much annoyed by them. No one 
thought to inquire as to the origin of 
the different animal races, or whether the 
bats which lived under the blinds and 
the quadrupeds which scampered behind the 
ceiling were created as such or were born 
of evolution. This old school building 
was the scene of busy life during ten or 
twelve weeks both summer and winter. 
The remaining part of the year, it was 
deserted and desolate. 

The teachers employed in this district — 
a young man in the winter and a young 
i6 



The Old District School 

woman in the summer — deserve a passing 
notice. They " kept school " one term 
each, but were seldom re-elected. As a 
matter of fact these teachers were incom- 
petent. They had enjoyed no opportunity 
for culture and professional training. It 
was not their fault. There were no train- 
ing schools in those days, no examinations, 
no opportunities nor inducements to gain 
the necessary preparation for their impor- 
tant work. The parents of the pupils had 
inherited the idea of education for their 
children, but knew little or nothing of 
its nature or importance. Economy was 
the main concern with them. Hence the 
scanty outfit for school purposes, and 
the cheap teachers. The question as to the 
candidate's qualifications for the teacher's 
ofiice was seldom raised, but rather how 
small a compensation would be accepted for 
the service required. In fact, the school 
was "struck off" to the lowest bidder. 
That was not economy, but a ruinous waste. 
In that school, and in almost all other 
country schools of that day, there was no 
systematic instruction, no class-drill, little 
2 17 



Reminiscences of School Life 

mental discipline, and absolutely no practi- 
cal training for even the common duties of 
life. Incorrect instruction led to the for- 
mation of bad habits of thought and study. 
These had to be corrected before any real 
progress could be made. The writer 
received as much real benefit from study 
at home, and more knowledge of English 
composition from correspondence with a 
playmate in vacations, than from all the 
instruction he ever had in the district 
school. This correspondence, or written 
discussion with a companion, here alluded 
to, was a novelty of its kind. The old 
farmhouses where our boyhood days were 
spent were a mile distant from each other. 
We were frequently together, but differed 
in our opinions on some of the current 
topics of the day. It was proposed that 
we engage in a written discussion. We 
agreed upon the subject and the method of 
the contest. On the roadside half-way 
between our houses, there was a large 
shelving rock under which we agreed to 
locate our post-office, and deposit our let- 
ters in turn. Though we might not see 
i8 



The Old District School 

each other for weeks, the discussion went 
on to the finish. Thus the benefit of 
independent thinking and reasoning and 
the power of expression were gained. 
Could we have had a competent critic of 
our forensic effort, this would have been a 
model exercise worthy of modern times. 

While yet at home on my father's farm 
(which lay one half in the town of Acworth 
and the other half in the town of Unity), I 
made my first effort to write for the press. 
It was called out under the following cir- 
cumstances. One Fourth of July, a large 
number of boys and young men living in 
Acworth and Unity assembled in the field 
near the house, on the Acworth side, for a 
wrestling match between the two towns. 
The struggle was at " arm's length," each 
victor meeting the man selected by a com- 
mittee on the other side. I threw my man 
and was thrown in turn. The contest 
lasted ail day ; and at night both parties 
claimed the victory, and I was appointed 
by the Acworth boys to write a report of 
the contest in vindication of our claim, for 
publication in a local newspaper. 
19 



Reminiscences of School Life 

As I remember, I claimed that we had 
shown superior strength and skill in the 
match, and had in reserve a still greater 
force ready to meet the Unity boys on 
some other day, and closed with the follow- 
ing anecdote, to illustrate. A timid boy, 
the son of his mother, had gained permis- 
sion to attend the annual military muster, 
" armed and equipped as the law directs/' 
He took his place in the company, and 
entered with spirit into the drill exercises 
of the day. He obeyed all orders of the 
captain, until he came to the " sham fight,** 
in which each soldier was ordered to " load 
and fire," when the word was given. He 
loaded every time, until he had inserted 
twelve charges, but he had not the courage 
to fire ! Hence he returned home with 
his gun loaded to the muzzle. He related 
to his mother the scenes of the day, and 
reluctantly exposed his cowardice in omit- 
ting to fire when ordered. For this the 
mother rebuked him, and taking the gun 
" fired it off,** to show her own courage. 
The result was, she was prostrated by the 
reaction of the overcharged weapon. 
20 



The Old District School 

Alarmed and trembling, the boy cried out, 
" Lie still, mother, there are eleven more 
charges to come yet." Hence it would be 
prudent for the Unity boys to keep quiet, 
as there were "eleven" more wrestlers 
ready for another contest. 

In the Clark district school, as I have 
intimated, the teaching of composition in 
any form was never attempted. Writing 
in copy-books was allowed, but not taught. 
In reading, the pupil acquired the habit of 
uttering improper sounds, mispronouncing 
words, and the incorrect expression of 
sentences. In arithmetic, he was required 
only to " do the sums," without under- 
standing the principles or reasons. It was 
never suggested that a correct knowledge 
of this or any other branch of study would 
be of any practical benefit in the business 
of life. The study of geography consisted 
of committing to memory long lists of 
names and figures, to be forgotten before 
the next recitation. Grammar was, and 
continued to be, one of the seven wonders 
of the world. As a result, the best gradu- 
ates from this school could not have esti- 

21 



Reminiscences of School Life 

mated the measure and value of a pile of 
wood, could not have expressed correctly a 
simple sentence, or written a creditable let- 
ter to their mothers. 

The influence of such a school upon its 
pupils, and upon the community, was dis- 
astrous. There was little in the school or 
the home calculated to encourage or inspire 
pupils to seek higher attainments. The 
condition of families and the community 
could not make great advancement under 
such a system of education. Real estate 
depreciated, enterprise languished, and de- 
cay has marked the lapse of time, from 
generation to generation, in that neighbor- 
hood. 

This is a fair specimen of the district 
schools of seventy-five years ago. What a 
contrast when compared with the schools 
of to-day ! True, the reform has not yet 
reached all the rural sections of the country. 
There are still to be found poor school- 
houses, stupid committee men, and unquali- 
fied teachers, which indicates a lingering 
indifference among the people in some 
localities ; but great progress has been made, 

22 



The Old District School 

during these years, in the cause of educa- 
tion. Vast sums of money are now ex- 
pended in erecting and furnishing elegant 
school buildings, in establishing normal 
schools for the education of teachers, and in 
providing for the supervision of the schools 
of the city, town, and State, and in establish- 
ing free libraries, accessible to both parents 
and pupils. The district system has been 
abolished and the town system substituted 
in most of the States. The graded school 
has taken the place of the ungraded, and 
an excellent system of school management 
and improved methods of instruction have 
been adopted and are being applied by a 
multitude of trained teachers all over the 
country. Teachers' associations have been 
organized, and are performing a valuable 
service in every State in the Union. The 
American Institute of Instruction, and the 
National Educational Teachers' Association, 
numbering thousands of our ablest educa- 
tors, hold their annual meetings and are lead- 
ing the educational thought of the nation. 

The National Bureau of Education at 
Washington, D. C, under the able manage- 
23 



Reminiscences of School Life 

ment of Dr. W. T. Harris, successor to 
General John Eaton, who for sixteen years 
did excellent work in that important posi- 
tion, is gathering up school statistics for the 
encouragement and use of educators toiling 
for still higher attainments in our educa- 
tional work. And now, more than ever 
before, our school officers are reaching out 
into the rural districts for the purpose of 
bringing these neglected schools under bet- 
ter supervision and instruction. The neces- 
sity of universal education for the prosperity 
of the nation, and the perpetuity of our free 
institutions, is acknowledged and felt to-day 
as never before. The improvements made 
in our educational facilities during the nine- 
teenth century are great and encouraging to 
our intelligent and patriotic people. But 
we must not forget that the old district 
school served its day and generation, and 
was an essential factor in the process of the 
evolution of our educational system. And 
may not the educators of the last quarter of 
the twentieth century have occasion to find 
as much fault with our system as we do 
with that of seventy-five years ago ? 
24 



II 

THE OLD ACADEMY 

THE old academy of our boyhood days 
was the hope of the common school, 
and the main feeder of the college ; but it 
was necessarily unsystematic, as a result 
of the irregularity of attendance. Well- 
arranged courses of study and a graded sys- 
tem of instruction were impossible. Most 
of the students came from the farm and 
the workshop, with no preparation except 
such as they could get in the district school 
of that day, and they were compelled to 
work their way unaided. Hence they were 
obliged to alternate terms of study with 
terms of labor ; to study in the autumn 
and teach in the winter ; to study in the 
spring and labor in the summer. As a 
result, the autumn and spring terms were 
comparatively large, and the v/inter and 



Reminiscences of School Life 

summer terms small. Thus proper classi- 
fication was impossible. 

Most of these institutions were unen- 
dowed and short-lived, but they were then 
a necessity. They occupied a position in 
the educational system of that day which 
no other school could fill, and performed 
a work which no other could have accom- 
plished. 

The open door of the old academy, its 
economical arrangements, and its earnest 
and devoted teachers invited and encour- 
aged the young men and women of the 
neighborhood to come up higher. It 
afforded them opportunity for real culture, 
and directed young men to the college and 
to the higher walks of professional life. 
Through the influence and inspiration of 
these academic institutions of New Eng- 
land, multitudes became better husbands 
and wives, better farmers, better mechanics, 
better merchants, better citizens, better 
teachers, and not a few pressed their way 
on through a liberal course of study. 

Though many of these institutions have 
done their work and passed away, they 
26 



The Old Academy 

should be remembered and honored for 
what they have accomplished. Graded 
schools have taken their places, yet a few 
still enjoy a spasmodic life and serve to 
kindle "backfires" for the more favored 
and permanent academies. 

The circumstances of my own life were 
all against gaining access to one of these 
academies, although I had conceived the 
idea and cherished the hope that I might 
sometime be thus favored. Surrounding 
influences were discouraging, and the neces- 
sary means to pay current expenses were 
wanting. If I took a step in that direction, 
my success or failure would depend entirely 
upon myself. How these obstacles could 
be overcome did not appear, but the crisis 
in my young life had come, and I must act. 
I had either to settle down amid the influ- 
ences by which I was surrounded, or break 
away from the beaten path which genera- 
tions of my ancestors had trodden and 
work my way to something higher and 
better. I took the risk, and in the autumn 
of 1 834 entered Chester (Vermont) Acad- 
emy for a single term of three months. 
27 



Reminiscences of School Life 

During the next four years, I was strug- 
gling to overcome the difficulties which were 
in the path I had chosen, studying when 
I could and laboring and teaching when 
necessary, to earn money to pay my 
way at school. I was able to study only 
about half of each of these years, and 
always under the most discouraging circum- 
stances. These terms of study were at 
four New England academies, viz. : Chester 
and Cavendish (Vermont), Kimball Union 
(New Hampshire), and Phillips Andover 
(Massachusetts.) 

Hallowed associations cluster around 
these institutions. I recall with intense in- 
terest the scenes through which I passed, 
the fellow-students with whom I mingled, 
and the principals and assistants under 
whose instruction I sat. Some of these 
teachers deserve more than a passing notice. 
Dr. Taylor, principal of Phillips Andover 
Academy, was the Arnold of America. As 
a classical author, as a teacher and disciplin- 
arian, he ranked among the ablest and best 
in the nation. Dr. Richards, principal of 
Kimball Union Academy, was a scholarly, 
28 



The Old Academy 

Christian gentleman, a graduate from Dart- 
mouth College, the author of one or two 
classical text-books, and for many years the 
head master of that old and honored insti- 
tution. As a classical teacher he ranked 
high ; as a principal and disciplinarian, 
though not popular with those who dis- 
approved of his system and method of gov- 
ernment, he was eminently successful. Dr. 
A. A. Miner, assistant teacher at Caven- 
dish Academy, was then a young man of 
royal presence and fine ability, and, though 
not a college graduate, he had already dis- 
tinguished himself both as teacher and 
preacher. He gained in power and influ- 
ence, as the years rolled on, became presi- 
dent of Tufts College, and the acknowledged 
leader of the religious denomination to 
which he belonged. Professor Wood, assist- 
ant teacher at Kimball Union, was a fine 
scholar — the author of "Wood*s Botany," 
a text-book which was popular in its day — 
and an able teacher. He was sometimes a 
little absent-minded, as an example or two 
will show. One day on returning from a 
walk, he came to his own ofiice door and 
29 



Reminiscences of School Life 

knocked for admission, and as no one bade 
him enter, he returned to the street, for- 
getting that he had no room-mate, and that 
he had the key to his door in his own 
pocket. At another time the professor 
started from his room, with oil-can in hand, 
for the store. While on the street, the bell 
calling to prayers in the chapel began to toll. 
He turned and started for the academy. 
Entering the building, doubtless with the 
impression that he had something about 
him that he ought not to carry into the 
audience room, but not realizing exactly 
what it was, he left his hat in the dust-closet ^ 
and carried his oil-can into the chapel, and 
placed it on the stage. This ludicrous scene 
served to make the exercises more cheerful, 
but probably not more devotional. All 
these men whom I have mentioned in this 
connection, and other principals, with their 
associates who were my teachers, have 
passed from earth, and but few of their 
students of that day survive. 



30 



Ill 

COLLEGE LIFE 

IN the autumn of 1838 I entered Dart- 
mouth College from Phillips Andover 
Academy, and graduated with my class in 
1842. In these new relations as a student, 
new influences were felt, new ambitions 
awakened, and new opportunities and facil- 
ities were offered and enjoyed. 

With the exception of a few academic 
classmates, all my class and college asso- 
ciates were entire strangers ; but we soon 
became acquainted, and experience taught 
us that, outside the family, there is no com- 
munity in which more endearing and last- 
ing friendships are formed than in college. 
There we met as strangers, but by constant 
mingling in the dormitories, classroom, and 
club, we soon came to know and to cherish 
an abiding interest in each other, in our 
31 



Reminiscences of School Life 

college, and in our president and professors. 
The mutual friendships formed were more 
often among classmates, as our relations to 
one another were more intimate. We toiled 
and played, enjoyed and suffered together, 
day after day and term after term, during 
the four short years of college life, and 
finally we stood together to receive the 
benediction of our president, and bade fare- 
well to one another and to the scenes with 
which we had become so familiar. We had 
treasured up the lessons of these busy 
years, the pleasant memories of our hon- 
ored instructors, and the incidents, songs, 
and anecdotes which interested us in these 
relations. 

Though nearly sixty years have passed 
since I left these consecrated halls, and all 
the faculty and more than two-thirds of my 
classmates have passed away, yet I see them 
just as they were, hear their familiar voices, 
and live over again those anxious, hopeful, 
and joyful days. I recall my faithful and 
scholarly instructors : Professor Haddock, 
the refined Christian gentleman who taught 
rhetoric and corrected our graduating ora- 
32 



College Life 

tions ; Professor Alpheus Crosby, the unas- 
suming but distinguished Greek scholar and 
author, our teacher of that elegant language ; 
Professor Young, the father of the famous 
Professor Young of Princeton, a philosopher 
and astronomer of marked ability, and a 
practical teacher of great skill, — each les- 
son under him was normal^ though normal 
methods had not then been taught in this 
country ; Professor Sanborn, the noble man, 
our drill-teacher in Latin, and the living 
historical encyclopaedia of the college, whose 
Christian example, energy, and devotion were 
a constant inspiration to all who came under 
his influence ; Professor Brown, a son of 
President Brown of the same college, our 
teacher in elocution ; Professor Chase, the 
great mathematician, who presided over our 
algebraic, geometrical, and trigonometrical 
problems and demonstrations, — he was an 
accurate scholar and an earnest teacher, 
although less skilled in the management 
of young men ; and Professor Hubbard, 
the chemical genius who revealed to us the 
mysteries of acids and alkalies, and demon- 
strated the facts at every point by unerring 
3 33 



Reminiscences of School Life 

experiments, — after holding his position 
for many years as chemical professor in 
the college proper, he was recalled, year 
after year, to instruct the medical class ; 
our tutors, Messrs. Peaslee, Samuel C. and 
Joseph Bartlett, — Dr. Peaslee became a 
distinguished professor in the medical de- 
partment, and Dr. S. C. Bartlett the presi- 
dent of the college ; and finally President 
Nathan Lord, who presided over Dart- 
mouth College for many years with great 
ability and skill, and the memory of whose 
sagacity and alertness in discipline survives 
in many a good story, which served to 
relieve the monotony of college life. A 
few of these anecdotes will illustrate the 
tone and spirit of college management sixty 
years ago. 

College Anecdotes 

As intimated, Dr. Lord was an executive 
officer of great ability, and he was very 
popular among the students. Though 
severe in discipline, he was seldom obliged 
to punish for malicious insubordination. 
The fun-loving students sometimes in- 
34 



College Life 

dulged in conduct which required rebuke, 
for the purpose of enjoying the sport, and 
to see what the good " Prex '* would do 
about it. 

One morning a ram was found in the 
belfry of the college chapel, tied by his 
horn to the bell-tongue. Several suspected 
parties were summoned to the president's 
office to answer the inquiry, " Can you tell 
me how that animal got up into the college 
belfry ? " They had all slept soundly in 
their own beds through that night, and no 
one knew anything about the matter, ex- 
cept Mason, who came in last. He answered 
the question promptly, and said he could 
give the desired information. " That ram," 
he said, " climbed up the lightning-rod ; 
I. saw his tracks." " That is sufficient. 
Mason," said the president ; " you are ex- 
cused." Nothing more was ever heard of 
this case. 

At another time, an old lean horse that 
had been seen grazing by the wayside was 
found stabled in the chapel, and when the 
students were coming out from their break- 
fast, the animal, grotesquely decorated with 
35 



Reminiscences of School Life 

a large stick attached to his extremity, was 
let loose and sent down across the common 
at full speed. Again, students likely to 
indulge in such irregularities were inter- 
viewed by the president. No information, 
however, could be gleaned, except from one 
who seemed to understand the case and 
to be willing to tell all he knew about it. 
Something like the following was his testi- 
mony : " As I issued forth from my dormi- 
tory this morning, I spied a quadruped, 
dressed in uniform, v/ith a beam fastened to 
his posterior, coming out of the chapel, and 
he went down over the campus as though 
his Satanic Majesty impelled him." " But 
pause," said the president; "your high- 
flown language is beyond my comprehen- 
sion. Give me a translation that I can 
understand." And the witness proceeded 
to translate as follows : "As I came out of 
my room this morning, I saw an old horse 
covered over with pictures, with a rail tied 
to his tail, and when let loose he ran down 
over the common as though the devil had 
kicked him in end." "That will do," said 
the president, " you are excused." 
36 



College Life 

A few years later, one of President 
Lord's faculty was familiarly known as 
peculiar by his frequent repetition of the 
expression, " And the converse is equally 
true." One evening Quint (the late Dr. 
Quint, so well known as a distinguished 
clergyman in Massachusetts, and for many 
years a trustee of the college) and one of 
his classmates took occasion to " horn " this 
professor. Unfortunately, President Lord 
was at that very hour making a call upon 
his associate, and both gave chase to the 
horn-blowers, who took flight intentionally 
in the direction of a deep trench which had 
recently been dug; and knowing the grounds 
and being nimble, they cleared the trench 
at a single leap, but their dignified pursuers 
fell in ! The boys waited developments at 
a safe distance, listening attentively, and soon 
heard the professor say, " Now, Dr. Lord, 
you get on your hands and knees, and I 
will climb out over you, and then I will 
pull you out." The Doctor replied, " Yes, 
yes, but the converse is equally true." A 
burst of laughter betrayed the boys, when 
Dr. Lord, recognizing Quint's voice, called 
37 



Reminiscences of School Life 

out, " Quint, Quint, come and help us out." 
So he did ; but the next day the two boys 
were called before the president and severely 
rebuked for insulting their teachers. " But,' ' 
said Quint to Dr. Lord, " if you had not 
made fun of the professor in the trench you 
would not have caught us." The presi- 
dent was quick to recognize the keenness 
of the reply and let the offenders off easily. 

On another occasion, as the story is told, 
the president caught a student helping him- 
self to wood from his shed. He arrested 
the thief and sternly inquired of him what 
authority he had for purloining wood 
from his pile. The frightened and mor- 
tified student, recalling his Latin syntax, 
replied, " Well, sir, * Opus and usus, signi- 
fying need^ require the ablative.' " The 
president responded, " Indeed, you are 
then in the ablative case, and in great need ! 
Take along the wood ; you are welcome 
to it." 

Other cases of discipline illustrate Dr. 

Lord's skilful method of management and 

his power to control young men. At one 

time the chapel Bible from v/hich the presi- 

38 



College Life 

dent was accustomed to read a chapter, in 
conducting morning religious services, dis- 
appeared. The students had assembled 
for prayers, and, having knowledge of the 
theft, were keenly interested in the exercise, 
expecting to hear a sound lecture on one 
of the ten commandments. Soon the 
president, not at all disconcerted, rose from 
his chair, and standing at his desk, repeated 
from memory a psalm with the same readi- 
ness and composure as he would have 
shown in reading it from the Bible. He 
made no allusion to the theft, but his 
silence was a more severe rebuke than a 
•lecture would have been, and before the 
next morning the Bible was returned. 

At another time, early in the morning, 
as we passed into the chapel for prayers, 
we were confronted by a frightful black 
effigy suspended over the door, reaching 
out its arms so as almost to touch our 
heads as we walked through the doorway. 
All had taken their seats, and the president 
was in his desk. A breathless silence pre- 
vailed, as we waited to hear what would be 
said to rebuke this rowdyism. Nor were 
39 



Reminiscences of School Life 

we long in waiting. The president rose in 
a dignified manner, lifted his glasses to his 
forehead, and in a distinct voice, and with 
a pleasing smile, said, " Gentlemen, I per- 
ceive that one of our rowdies is suspended." 
A roar of applause followed. Not another 
word was spoken upon the subject, but the 
" rowdies " who committed the offence 
were not pleased with the company into 
which the president had introduced them, 
nor did they hear the last of it from their 
fellow-students for many a day. 

Here is a college pun worth recording. 
President Lord had eight sons, and all 
graduated from the college. One of these 
sons was named Nathan, after his father, 
and had the reputation of being rather wild 
and disorderly. Hence the inquiry among 
the students was, " Why does Dr. Lord be- 
lieve in * total depravity ' ? " Answer — 
" Because it is in-Nate." 

Still another college anecdote is worth 
telling in this connection. Some of the 
boys had carelessly formed the habit of 
profanity, but upon reflection were ashamed 
of it, and resolved to reform. They 
40 



College Life 

organized an anti-swearing club, and all 
signed a pledge which read in substance as 
follows : " I hereby solemnly pledge that 
I will not use profane language anywhere 
this side of Mink Brooke This brook, well 
known to every student and graduate of 
the college, crosses the highway leading to 
White River Junction, half a mile more or 
less from the college. 

One morning, very early, a member of 
this club was seen running with great speed 
across the campus in a southerly direction. 
He was hailed by a fellow-student, with 
the inquiry as to the cause of his haste. 
With all the gravity of a conscientious 
man, he replied, " I am going down over 
Mink Brook to swear. I can't stand it 
any longer." 

Incidents of College Life 

It was Saturday night, when a rumor 
reached the students from the neighbor- 
hood of East Hanover, four miles away, 
that a mother from Pennsylvania had come 
to Hanover for the purpose of securing the 
custody of her four boys, then living with 
41 



Reminiscences of School Life 

their uncle, the brother of her divorced 
husband. It was stated to us that this 
intelligent and accomplished woman had 
learned that her children were not properly 
cared for, and that she was now able to 
undertake their future support and educa- 
tion. It was further stated that the uncle 
had treated her rudely, and sternly refused 
to give up the children, and that she was 
in great distress. Our sympathy was 
awakened, and our indignation aroused. 
Two of us decided to go at once to the 
scene of conflict, to aid, if possible, in ad- 
justing matters. We went, and on our re- 
turn, after spending a full day, reported to 
the student body. The uncle, who had 
promised us that he would give up the 
children, changed his mind, as we soon 
learned, and swore that he would shoot the 
next student who came upon his premises. 
Upon learning this fact, it was at once 
decided to settle the case without judge or 
jury. A strong body of students was 
organized, and carriages secured, for the 
purpose of taking that mother and her 
children, by force if need be, and sending 
42 



College Life 

them to her home. This was done with 
great ceremony and satisfaction. They 
were brought to the college, and money 
was raised to pay the expenses of the family 
and an accompanying student en route^ 
and they were soon safely settled in their 
Pennsylvania home. 

The sequel of the story remains to be 
told. Some months later, we were pained 
to learn of the death of one of these boys. 
The next intelligence received, years after- 
wards, was that Hon. S. R., an ex-member 
of Congress, had died at his home in 
Pennsylvania. That honorable gentleman 
proved to be the eldest son of that mother 
who is the heroine of my story. 

I recall with great interest an incident 
in which Alpheus Benning Crosby, then a 
mere boy, was the actor. He was the son 
of Professor Dixi Crosby, for many years 
the honored head of the Medical College at 
Dartmouth. Young Crosby was a born 
physician, and grew up in the very atmo- 
sphere of medical life and practice. He 
entered college very young, and became a 
leader in his class. The incident here to 
43 



Reminiscences of School Life 

be recorded will show his maturity, self- 
possession, and ability. One cold Novem- 
ber morning, when the custom was to call 
in classes for recitation before breakfast, 
the professor of mathematics, who was in 
poor health, was seen by the class suddenly 
to swoon, and, reeling in his chair, to fall 
heavily forward on his desk. The class 
seemed paralyzed by alarm, and sat riveted 
to their seats, all except young Crosby, 
who was the only hoy in the class. He at 
once took in the situation, and, as quickly, 
knew just what to do. He sprang over 
the benches, and reached the unconscious 
professor in time to save him from falling. 
He removed his collar and cravat from his 
neck, kicked away the chairs, and laid his 
master prostrate upon the floor. He 
ordered the windows opened, and sent one 
of the " patriarchs ** for a glass of water. 
All his orders were promptly obeyed. 
Under this heroic treatment the professor 
soon opened his eyes and recovered con- 
sciousness. The young doctor who had 
taken charge of the case, without waiting 
to be sent for, now gathered up the scat- 
44 



College Life 

tered effects, brushed the professor's coat, 
and sent him safely to his home. 

As we might expect, we heard from 
Crosby again. After finishing his college 
and medical courses, he was soon appointed 
professor, and later became a leading lec- 
turer before medical classes in five different 
colleges, and had a large practice wherever 
located. He died in the prime of man- 
hood, while delivering a course of lectures 
at Dartmouth, and was laid beside his 
honored father, in the village churchyard. 

My Own College Class 

The class of 1842 was the banner class 
of the college as regards the number of 
graduates up to date, 1897. We entered 
one hundred and one ; thirty more joined 
the class during our four years* course ; and 
we graduated eighty-seven. Our average 
age at graduation was twenty-three, — the 
youngest was eighteen, and the oldest 
thirty. The class was physically strong 
and self-reliant. They could withstand 
the pressure of sophomore rushes, and one, 
at least, could hold helpless, at arm's length, 
45 



Reminiscences of School Life 

any two of their strongest men. One of 
our boys (who in his manhood was for 
twenty-five years superintendent of Boston 
public schools) did attack, single-handed, 
and repel the " Dartmouth Guards," — a 
hazing party that had come to his room to 
insult him, — and drove them away sore- 
headed. 

The class furnished one member to 
General Grant*s Cabinet (Akerman), one 
distinguished general to the Union Army 
(Hobart), one governor to the State of 
Louisiana during the Civil War (Flanders), 
five judges, — two of whom (Brigham and 
Nash) were on the Supreme bench in 
Massachusetts, — one member of the Pro- 
vincial Parliament in Canada (Sanborn), 
and several other prominent lawyers. Our 
physicians ranked high, in practice at home 
and in the army. Two of them became 
superintendents of Insane Asylums (Tyler 
and Walker). Our clergymen have done 
good service as preachers and pastors, and 
three of them received the honorary degree 
of D.D. Our teachers have honored the 
profession, and some of them gained dis- 
46 



College Life 

tinction. Four of the class had conferred 
upon them the college honor of LL.D. 

In June of 1892, seventeen of the thirty- 
four survivors at that time returned to 
Dartmouth to celebrate the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of our graduation. Time had wrought 
great changes. We had lost our physical 
identity. Intimate college friends who had 
not met for fifty years failed to recognize 
each other. Why should they, since each 
of them had seven times exchanged the old 
for a new body ? Death had done its work. 
Fifty-three of the eighty-seven had died. 
The average age of those who had died 
was fifty-six. Ten of this number had 
attained the age of seventy-three. The 
average age of the living was seventy-five. 
Six years later the record stands, sixty- 
seven dead and twenty living. The class 
has made a good record and will be 
remembered. 



47 



IV 

THE STUDENT BECOMES A 
SCHOOLMASTER 

THE period of my life as a school- 
master extended over eight years, 
during which my time was spent in teach- 
ing in public schools and in laboring to 
earn the money necessary to defray the 
expenses while studying. I taught eight 
winters in Rockingham and Barre, Ver- 
mont, and in Andover and Wellfleet, 
Massachusetts. 

■ My first little kingdom as a schoolmas- 
ter was in the Locke district on Rocking- 
ham Hills. I was called to that throne 
from Chester Academy in 1834, after my 
first term of academic study. My wages 
amounted to eleven dollars per month, and 
board, not among the scholars, but among 
the taxpayers. This method of boarding 
the schoolmaster was novel even then ; but 
48 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

none except crusty old bachelors who had 
no children to educate found fault with it, 
and why should they ? All property 
owners in the district always share the 
expense of the teacher^s wages, — and why 
not the expense of his board as well ? 

This boarding the teacher around, as in 
those early days and in a few cases even 
now, had its advantages as well as disad- 
vantages. The necessity was thus laid upon 
the teacher to form an intimate acquain- 
tance with all his patrons, and to learn the 
peculiarities and wishes of each family. 
This gave him the opportunity to secure 
their confidence and co-operation, which are 
absolutely necessary to success, whether he 
has one or many boarding-places. 

On the other hand, there were serious 
disadvantages in this ancient method of 
boarding the schoolmaster. He needed 
the convenience and comforts of a home 
for rest and study ; and really there is no 
more propriety in boarding the teacher 
among the taxpayers than in boarding the 
pastor among his parishioners, or the physi- 
cian among his patients. 
4 49 



Reminiscences of School Life 

My experience in my first school in 
the Locke district left vivid and lasting 
impressions on my mind. It was under- 
taken with peculiar feelings and some mis- 
givings. It seemed a fearful task for a 
young teacher with only a partial prepara- 
tion for the work and with no experience. 
I had charge of forty children, of all ages 
from four to eighteen years, from every 
kind of family, representing every phase of 
human nature. The bright and the stupid, 
the roguish and the ugly, the restless and 
tlie turbulent were all huddled in together, 
a little world in embryo, and they were here 
to be governed and taught under the criti- 
cism of ignorant and meddlesome fathers 
and mothers. Never have I achieved a 
success with more satisfaction and pride 
than that recognized at the end of my 
first three months of school-life experience. 

The thirty-three dollars in cash, with 
even the best board which the good 
mothers of that district could provide, 
seems inadequate compensation for so 
much labor, care, and anxiety as were be- 
stowed upon that school. But, in fact, I 
50 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

secured much more than my salary for my 
services. I gained valuable experience, 
which was of great use to me in later 
years. Incessant toil and effort to over- 
come difficulties gave me strength and con- 
fidence. I learned how to deal with men, 
women, and children in their school rela- 
tions. Finally, I learned human nature, — 
an important lesson for every schoolmaster, 
which cannot be learned anywhere else so 
readily as in a district school. I learned how 
to manage those parents who were always 
ready to give advice and to seek special 
favors for themselves and their children, by 
listening to them attentively and patiently, 
without offering offensive opposition, and 
then acting independently, according to my 
own judgment, as circumstances required. 
I found that any attempt to follow such 
advice and to grant such favors, with a view 
of pleasing, is to surrender manly independ- 
ence, and is sure to result in failure. 

My second winter school was in Factory 
Village, Andover, Massachusetts. I found 
there a very different school, in a very dif- 
ferent neighborhood from the one I had 
SI 



Reminiscences of School Life 

left in Vermont. The people were largely 
factory employees and uncultivated, and 
the children reared in these families dif- 
fered but little from semi-savages. The vil- 
lage had become missionary ground for the 
students of Phillips Academy and the Theo- 
logical Seminary, on Andover Hill. For 
two years I had been superintendent of a 
Sabbath-school in this "little red school- 
house " while a student in the academy. 
Now I had engaged to teach their district 
school. The school had run wild for sev- 
eral years, and was regarded as very diffi- 
cult to manage. 

The history of the first few days fur- 
nishes an instructive object lesson in school 
discipline. Indeed the first few days in any 
school usually determines the teacher^s 
success or failure. 

When I entered this school the first 
morning, the room was filled with pupils, 
and much confusion prevailed. I rapped 
upon the desk as a signal for order, and 
waited until quiet was secured and all were 
seated. I issued no commands and made 
no laws, but kept my eyes and ears open, 
52 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

and watched the movements that I might 
learn the drift of public sentiment and the 
character and purpose of individual pupils. 
I began to make inquiries about the studies 
to be pursued and the text-books to be 
used, but soon I observed half a dozen 
boys jumping out of the window and re- 
turning through the door. Others left 
their seats without permission, and chaos 
seemed again to rule the hour. The ques- 
tion was now to be settled, how to bring 
the school under control and to hold them 
under authority. By a special effort I 
gained their attention and told them I 
wished to talk to them a few moments, 
and they seemed ready to listen. I ex- 
plained to them my position as master and 
teacher, and their position as pupils, and 
our mutual relations and duties to each 
other. I assured them that I was their 
friend, was interested in their improvement 
and welfare, and had come to aid them in 
securing a practical education. To this 
end, I needed their assistance and co-opera- 
tion. The school must be orderly, studi- 
ous, and obedient under necessary rules 
53 



Reminiscences of School Life 

and regulations ; and if they compelled me 
to secure these results by force^ I should 
have but little time to devote to instruction. 
They seemed interested in my ideas and 
methods, and appeared ready to express 
their approval. I then asked all who fav- 
ored these views, and were ready to pledge 
obedience and co-operation, to manifest it 
by rising. By a large majority they voted 
in the affirmative. I had thus gained com- 
plete moral power over them, and had 
created a favorable public opinion to aid 
me in my work. I must now check and 
crush out every act of treachery and insub- 
ordination, and this I did promptly and 
effectually. At the end of the first week, 
the school was completely organized and 
under perfect control, and I was able to 
maintain my position to the end of the 
term, without resort to severe punishment 
in many cases. I was urged to re-engage 
for the next winter, but declined to return. 
My third school was in Wellfieet, Massa- 
chusetts, on Cape Cod. My conveyance 
from my home in New Hampshire was 
by stage, one hundred and fifty miles, to 
54 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

Boston, and from Boston to the Cape by- 
sea, in an old fishing schooner, on " Thanks- 
giving Day " ! I had not much that day 
to be thankful for, seasick as I was, except 
that the vessel landed me safely on that 
sandy shore. There I found myself in a 
different climate, among a " peculiar peo- 
ple." The briny Atlantic that washes the 
shore tempers the atmosphere; and the 
bleak winds that sweep over the sandy 
plain keep it pure and healthful. People 
live their appointed time and die there, as 
in other parts of the country, but they 
more often live to a good old age or die 
a violent death. I remember that there 
were in the town of Wellfleet, at the time 
I taught school there, sixteen widows 
whose husbands had died by drowning. 
" Cape Cod Folks," sixty years ago, were 
a seafaring people. They then not only 
manned a large part of the American fishing 
fleet, but also gave officers and sailors to a 
large, and possibly the larger part of the 
great and world-wide extended merchant 
marine of the country. Courage, deter- 
mination, and business ability were brought 
55 



Reminiscences of School Life 

out and cultivated by these opportunities 
and this kind of life. But there has been 
a shrinkage of nearly two-thirds in the 
fishing business which, three generations 
ago, furnished employment to nearly all 
the able-bodied male citizens. Hence 
many have turned their attention to agricul- 
ture, to growing garden vegetables for the 
city markets, and to providing for summer 
residents who have learned that Cape Cod 
is one of the most desirable summer resorts 
in the country. Still they were and are, in 
the best sense, a " peculiar people." There 
were relatively very few persons residing 
among them of foreign birth. In their 
manners and habits they were simple and 
artless. Their homes were models of peace 
and cordiaHty. In their neighborhood re- 
lations they were social and friendly, and al- 
ways generous and hospitable, to the last 
degree, to all who lived among them. 
They were an intelligent and religious 
people, and manifested much interest in 
their schools and teachers. I was treated 
with great kindness from the first, and was 
furnished the best living that they could 
S6 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

provide. Parents were ever ready to co- 
operate with me, and to sustain me in the 
management of their schools. 

My school life in Wellfleet extended 
over five winters, and in going and coming 
I had become quite a sailor, having crossed 
Cape Cod Bay sixteen times. I taught in 
two districts,— three winters in the " Back 
Side '' district overlooking the broad Atlan- 
tic, and two winters in the " Pond Hill " 
district, in the south part of the town. At 
the close of my school in the spring, I was 
each time re-engaged for the next winter. 

These schools numbered nearly one hun- 
dred pupils each, ranging from six to 
twenty-five years of age. They were of a 
decidedly mixed character, and all gathered 
in one room, to be managed and taught 
without an assistant ! In the " Back Side " 
school I had a whole ship's crew, including 
captain, mate, and cook. They had come 
home from a fishing voyage to spend the 
winter, and, having nothing else to do, they 
entered the school. It will be readily seen, 
as it proved in practice, that the govern- 
ment of such a school was no " boy's play " 
57 



Reminiscences of School Life 

for the teacher, however much the boys 
might play. 

I propose here to explain the method 
adopted in the discipline of these schools, 
as an object lesson. It is expressed by the 
word management. This method includes 
government based upon authority, yet it 
aims to avoid the necessity of exercising 
authority and the infliction of severe pun- 
ishment. It is based upon the assumption 
that in the best governed school the 
controlling power is not visible. That is, 
the school is so managed that it becomes 
and remains self-governing. Order is pre- 
served and obedience rendered, yet no 
visible force is applied to secure the result. 
There is, indeed, a reserve power behind 
the throne, which, like the second brake of 
the engine on the car descending Mount 
Washington railroad, can be instantly ap- 
plied in case of an emergency. In apply- 
ing this method, I always insisted that there 
could be but one head to my school and 
that my authority was absolute ; yet I 
planned and labored to secure voluntary 
conformity to known, necessary rules and 
58 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

regulations. To this end I aimed to gain the 
confidence of the pupils, large and small, 
and through them the confidence and co- 
operation of their parents and friends. But 
I never failed promptly to check every in- 
dication of insubordination and irregularity. 
The pupils were treated with attention and 
kindness, at all times and everywhere. 
Out of school hours I mingled familiarly 
with them, joined them in their sports, and 
sympathized with them in all their joys and 
sorrows. In their homes — where I fre- 
quently met them, by the way, — and on the 
playground we stood on a common level. 
In the schoolroom, however, I was recog- 
nized as master, and so complete was their 
loyalty — captain, mate and all — that I 
could punish, if need be, with severity, 
in the presence of the school, without the 
least opposition on the part of the offender. 
I have spoken of the loyalty of my 
Cape Cod pupils. I did not mean that 
they were always careful to observe the 
rules and regulations of the school. Quite 
the opposite was true of some of them. 
They were boiling over with fun, and 
59 



Reminiscences of School Life 

sometimes enjoyed the novelty of a case of 
discipline, even at their own expense ; but 
they were always ready to endure the pen- 
alty cheerfully. 

For example. Seaman Cheever, a large, 
rough, and good-natured sailor, sat quietly 
in his seat, studying, as I supposed, 
" Olney's Geography." He found there 
a picture representing buffaloes falling 
into a pit prepared for their capture. In 
an instant, the quiet of the schoolroom 
was changed into the utmost confusion by 
Cheever's boisterous laughter. I at once 
called him to account, and demanded an 
explanation. He began to apologize, assur- 
ing me that he meant no harm, and went 
on to say, " Those buffaloes reminded me 
of the boys jumping off Pond Hill into 
the snowbank, and I could n't help laugh- 
ing." I severely rebuked his rude and 
disorderly conduct, and punished him 
mildly, as a warning for the school, and he 
meekly settled down to quiet study. 

I had another class of loyal students 
who aimed to do nothing contrary to law, 
without permission. Shipmate Swett fur- 
60 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

nishes an example. He was a young man 
six feet and two inches tall, of dignified 
bearing, and occupied a back seat in one 
corner of the room. He asked permission 
to speak, which was granted. He rose, 
and coming down to the front, seated him- 
self beside a bright little girl, some six 
years of age, and began conversing with 
her. His only object was to make fun, 
and this object was soon accomplished. 
The ludicrous scene excited great merri- 
ment. I was busy in conducting a recita- 
tion, but I paused, and, fixing my eyes upon 
the offender, listened to the conversation. 
The little girl blushed and manifested great 
uneasiness. The tall shipmate, taking in 
the situation, began to realize his own awk- 
ward position. I waited the proper time 
to speak, and then said, " Swett, don't you 
see how ashamed that little girl appears ? '* 
He rose to his feet, and in great confusion 
marched off to his own seat, amid the con- 
vulsive laughter of the school. This treat- 
ment of the case was effective and produced 
a permanent cure. 

There were in these schools, as in most 
6i 



Reminiscences of School Life 

others, a few idle, lawless fellows upon 
whom moral influence and mild measures 
had no power. They had no desire for 
improvement, cared nothing for law and 
order, had no respect for superiors, and 
were ready to defy authority whenever it 
suited their convenience. How to treat 
this class is a question which every practical 
teacher has to answer. My own views on 
this point were formed and expressed many 
years ago, and my long and varied experi- 
ence in the discipline of the school has 
wrought no change in them. We hear 
much said, in these days, upon the reform 
method of family and school government. 
It is maintained by learned theorists in 
positions of high authority, and it is voted 
by wise or unwise school boards, that no 
physical coertion should be allowed in our 
public schools. If there are children who 
cannot be controlled by moral suasion, they 
say, expel them. I say, in answer to these 
theorists, if they have employed teachers 
who cannot govern their schools without 
frequent resort to corporal punishment, turn 
them out, but allow the skilful disciplina- 
62 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

rian to retain the rod for use in such cases 
as I have described above. It is wrong, it 
is cruel^ to turn into the street the stubborn 
rebellious boy or girl who refuses to be 
persuaded to submit to authority, and thus 
give the child over to the officers of the 
law, soon to be enrolled with the criminal 
classes. The sensible and humane course is 
to subdue the rebel by whatever severity 
necessary, and save him to himself, to his 
family, and to society. No careful observer 
has failed to see the evil results of this 
" milk and water " system of family and 
school government. 

These remarks lead me naturally to de- 
scribe some hard cases in discipline which 
have come under my own observation and 
treatment. I will record them for the bene- 
fit of young teachers who may read this 
page in the history of my experience. I 
would not be understood, however, as ad- 
vocating severity as a rule, but only in 
these exceptional cases. No good disci- 
plinarian often uses violent measures, and 
when he does, it is not as " a last resort,'' 
but as the proper and only remedy for the 
63 



Reminiscences of School Life 

case in hand. Each case should be treated 
on its merits, and with a full knowledge of 
all the circumstances. All hard cases do 
not require the use of the rod, as the fol- 
lowing examples will show. 

Hard Cases in Discipline. 

The first case I will mention under this 
head was one of deception followed by 
defiant rebellion. A large boy had been 
excused to return home early in the after- 
noon, on the plea that his father needed 
his services. I soon discovered him play- 
ing ball with friends not members of the 
school, in sight of the schoolhouse. I 
immediately sent a messenger to notify 
him that I ordered him to return at once 
to school. He refused, and continued his 
game. Something must now be done, as 
the school was familiar with all the facts. 
What should be done, was the question. 
The boy came to school the next morning, 
but I did not recognize him as a pupil. 
He soon discovered by my treatment that 
he stood suspended until a satisfactory 
64 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

settlement was effected. Later he opened 
the case in his own behalf, and insisted 
that he had a right to remain out of school, 
as he had been excused. I referred him 
to his false statement when he asked leave 
of absence, and his refusal to obey my 
orders to return to school, and gave him a 
few hours to make a satisfactory confession 
before the school, and to pledge truthful- 
ness and obedience in the future. If this 
was not done, I assured him that he 
would have me to deal with in the final 
settlement. He came to terms that were 
satisfactory, and gave me no trouble after- 
wards. 

The next case was still more aggravating 
and difficult to handle. A bright, talented 
boy, fifteen years of age, was sent to my 
academy, with the understanding that he 
had never been governed at home or in 
school, and his near relatives expressed 
doubts as to whether he could be brought 
under proper school regulations. He had 
conquered his stepfather in a pitched battle, 
while en route^ and the latter did not know 
what to do with him. I admired the 
S 65 



Reminiscences of School Life 

brightness and social qualities of the boy, 
and became greatly interested in him. But 
I soon discovered that he had no idea of 
recognizing me as his master. Still, some 
time elapsed before we came into conflict. 

I was one day conducting a class recita- 
tion of which he was a member. Some 
question was put to him which he answered 
in an insulting manner. I rose from my 
chair and stepped down in front of the 
boy, with no intention of touching him ; 
but he at once assumed a defiant position, 
which I understood was intended as a 
challenge to lay hand on him. I accepted 
it as such, and taking him by the collar 
I laid him upon his back on the floor. 
He instantly rose, in great rage, and com- 
menced swearing at me ! I did not use 
the rod upon him, for I had none at hand, 
but I chastised him severely (taking care 
not to do him serious injury), and con- 
tinued to do so until he stopped swearing. 
I then seated him by my side on the plat- 
form, and finished the recitation. He 
was completely subdued, as I intended he 
should be, but I had not done with him 
66 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

yet. The most important part of the 
treatment was yet to come. 1 must see 
him alone^ as I did, and explain to him my 
feelings and motives in dealing with him 
so roughly. This was exactly the time 
when moral suasion could be brought to 
bear upon him to some purpose. I talked 
to him in the tone and spirit of a friend, 
and he recognized me as such, told me 
frankly, and told others who had come to 
sympathize with him and take his part 
against me, that I was right and he was 
wrong ; and years afterwards, when I met 
him, he said that rny treatment of him on 
that occasion was of great value to him in 
after life. He became a successful busi- 
ness man, and remained a warm personal 
friend to the day of his death. 

The next case I will describe reveals a 
method of dealing with moral evil in 
school. A boy of twelve years of age 
was known in my academy as an active, 
good-natured, and social little fellow, but 
circumstances awakened suspicion that he 
might be, with all, " light-fingered." Sub- 
sequent events confirmed this suspicion, 
67 



Reminiscences of School Life 

and when a sum of money, in bills, had 
disappeared from the teacher's drawer, there 
remained no doubt that this boy had it. 
After full investigation, I decided upon 
a course of treatment of the case. At 
morning prayers I called the attention 
of the school to the facts, told them that 
the thief was one of their number and was 
present, that I saw in his nervous excite- 
ment not only evidence of his guilt, but of 
the consciousness that he had made a great 
mistake, and would gladly make restitution 
if he could have the opportunity. I then 
described the nature of the crime, and 
spoke of the personal disgrace and the 
mortification of friends that would result 
from public exposure. Now, to save the 
guilty party from these consequences, I 
proposed to him a way of escape. I 
said, if I found the stolen money in my 
chapel Bible the next morning, I should 
regard the fact as full evidence that he had 
sincerely repented of his sinful act, and 
would not expose him. All this time 
the little culprit was evidently in agony, 
and anxious to hide himself from public 
68 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

view. The next morning, on the re- 
assembling of the school, I found the iden- 
tical bills carefully laid in the Bible, as I 
had suggested. The announcement to the 
school produced a pleasant sensation, but 
no one appeared so delighted as the boy 
himself. I now took occasion to commend 
the acts of repentance and restitution, and 
to impress the lesson upon the hearts of 
the pupils. Thus ended the whole affair, 
and happy results followed, as seen in the 
correct and successful business life of the 
man who had been an erring boy. 

Another case, sad and troublesome, was 
treated in the same academy. The con- 
duct of two young men required uncondi- 
tional separation from the school. I asked 
no advice, but told them that they must 
leave. There were yet no demonstrations of 
sympathy on the part of the student body, 
but I knew there would be, if nothing was 
done to forestall it. Hence I called up 
the matter before the school, and expressed 
my grief in being compelled to pronounce 
the sentence upon the young men, and my 
sympathy for them. Though this verdict 
69 



Reminiscences of School Life 

could not be changed, yet I was ready to 
do anything in my power in the future for 
their welfare. I told my students that I 
wanted an expression of their approval of 
my action, if they could approve, and called 
for a standing vote. Every one in the hall, 
including the expelled young men, in- 
stantly rose to sustain me. I had now 
gained a moral victory. All had com- 
mitted themselves, and could not make 
me trouble in the future, however much 
they might sympathize with their unfor- 
tunate companions. I did not ask the 
school what I should do under the circum- 
stances. That was for me to settle. I asked 
them to approve my action, as I knew they 
would. Had I doubted this, I should not 
have put the vote. My motive was to 
fix public opinion in favor of correct de- 
portment and good order. 

Still another case was treated later. A 
young girl of fifteen summers had been 
sent to my Ladies' Seminary. She had 
never been governed at home, and she was 
not at all disposed to recognize authority 
or submit to dictation in school. Her 
70 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

mother told me frankly, that if the child 
could not be persuaded, it was better to 
allow her to conquer than to force obedi- 
ence, but she wanted me to control her! 
The girl was a member of the instrumental 
music class, and one of the requirements 
was that each scholar should practise her 
lesson upon the piano a certain number 
of hours each day. One afternoon it was 
reported to me that this young lady had 
refused to practise. I took her in hand, 
and ordered her to obey her teacher, and 
conform to the rules of the school. Again 
she refused, but gave no reason for her 
action. I insisted, and remained by her 
side at the piano, waiting for her to obey 
my order, from early evening to nearly 
midnight. She submitted, and I was again 
master of my school. Had this rebellious 
student been a boy, the question would 
have been settled in fifteen minutes, but 
"circumstances alter cases." 

The last specimen case of discipline 

which I will record was peculiar, but it 

is liable to occur in the experience of any 

teacher ; hence I will state the circumstances 

71 



Reminiscences of School Life 

and my method of treatment. An angry 
mother had the impression that her son 
had been ill-treated, and with more valor 
than discretion had come to the school, in 
school hours, to give the schoolmaster a 
lecture! She came in without knocking, 
and began in an excited manner to scold 
me. I told her that I had no time, and 
that the schoolroom in school hours was 
no place to discuss the matter; that if she 
would be seated and remain until the 
school was dismissed I would talk with 
her, or if she would retire I would see 
her at her home the first opportunity. 
This proposition did not satisfy her. For 
a moment she insisted upon her right to 
talk to me then and there. But seeing 
that I was about to enforce my orders, she 
became quiet and left. In due time, a 
conference was held, and the difficulty set- 
tled to our mutual satisfaction. These 
six examples of "hard cases" in school 
discipline serve to show different methods 
of treatment, as each differs from every 
other and may have many duplicates in 
the experience of readers of these pages. 
72 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 



Later Experience 

I LEFT Cape Cod at the close of my fifth 
winter with sincere regret. I had become 
very much attached to my loyal pupils and 
the kind-hearted people whom I had known 
so long and so well. 

After my return from the Cape for the 
last time, and from the hayfield where I 
had spent my summer vacation, I was taken 
down with fever, and was for some weeks 
under Professor Dixi Crosby's medical 
care. I had begun to recover, but had 
gained hardly strength enough to walk 
from my room to the carriage in the street 
when I had a call to Barre, Vermont, to 
finish a term of select school which had 
been begun by a young man who had just 
received an appointment as a cadet at West 
Point. I accepted the offer, and hastened 
to the scene of my labors. I found it a 
new position and very difficult to fill, but 
was able to carry the burden through with 
a good degree of satisfaction. In the mean 
time, the district committee prevailed upon 
73 



Reminiscences of School Life 

me to engage to teach the pubHc school in 
the same district, the winter term. This 
was my last term of service in the district 
school. It was a large and very difficult 
school to govern. It differed from my other 
schools, not so much in the fun-loving pro- 
pensity of the pupils as in the character 
of the lawless actions of the pupils, many 
of whom were stubborn and malicious. I 
never found fault with mere playfulness and 
roguery, if the pupil was respectful and 
loyal ; but the wilful rebel who defied 
authority and broke every rule that came 
in his way found in me a hard but faith- 
ful master. I did not expel, but subdued 
him, and then treated him with attention 
and kindness, and I seldom if ever failed to 
make him my friend. I had more such 
pupils to manage in Barre than in Well- 
fleet, but I was able to carry the school 
through successfully. I then returned to 
college, at the opening of the spring term, 
to resume my studies, and to complete 
the year's work in less than six months, 
as I had already lost two terms of that 
year. 

74 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

I had now taught district schools eight 
terms of three months each, and one select 
school two months. I had still one year 
more to complete my college course, but 
only half of this year could be spent with 
my class. I was engaged during the fall term 
of 1 841 as associate principal of Hebron 
(New Hampshire) Academy, under Mr. 
Leonard Tenny, a college mate, an associate 
as a Cape Cod schoolmaster, and a life- 
long friend, and during the winter I was 
principal of the same academy. Here I 
had less discipline, but more instruction in 
higher branches, which proved to be a new 
experience of great value in my subsequent 
academic life. I was brought in contact 
with more mature minds, with ambitious, 
scholarly, and critical young men and women 
who came into my classes, several of whom 
became distinguished in after life. In the 
spring of 1842, I returned to Dartmouth 
to spend my last terms of study and to 
graduate. The goal was finally reached, 
and the object of my ambition attained, 
though imperfectly ; but rough was the 
road and desperate the effort necessary to 
75 



Reminiscences of School Life 

gain it. Not half of the first four years in 
the preparatory course, as I have stated, 
had I been able to spend in study, and only 
ten of the sixteen terms in college could I 
remain with my class. 



The Profit and Loss Estimated 

A BRIEF review of this struggle and its 
results seems appropriate in this connec- 
tion. My education cost me eight years 
of time and of hard work, and all the money 
I could earn by manual labor and teaching, 
and four hundred dollars for which I was 
in debt when I graduated. And I sold my 
watch on commencement day to Professor 
Cyrus Baldwin of Kimball Union Academy 
for forty dollars, to enable me to meet my 
share of class expenses and make a contri- 
bution to the college library. 

Another question arises here, — Was it 
wise to make this sacrifice and contract a 
debt at the risk of future success ? My 
answer is, I have never regretted my course 
in this regard, but rather that I did not 
secure an additional loan and spend two or 
76 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

three years more, at least, in supplementary- 
study in the university and normal schooL 
It would have added much to my efficiency 
as a teacher and to the certainty of success. 
I have no sympathy with the false notion 
that a collegiate education is not a desirable 
preparation for professional study, and I 
have no respect for the false guide who 
would advise a young man, because he is 
poor, to pass by the college and rush into 
the profession of law, inedicine, teaching, or 
the ministry with no preparation, except to 
learn his trade as does the blacksmith or 
the carpenter. The preparatory discipline 
of the college, in addition to the professional, 
is in every case desirable, if the candidate 
would make the most of himself and his 
opportunities. If he has wise counsellors, 
the ambitious young man, though entirely 
dependent, will seek the discipline and cul- 
ture of as thorough an academic and col- 
legiate course as is within his reach and 
attainable means, before he enters upon his 
professional studies or the business of his 
life. He needs first and most of all the 
attainment of intellectual manhood, what- 
77 



Reminiscences of School Life 

ever is to be his future position and work. 
The lamented Dr. Miner, while he was 
president of Tufts College, and at the same 
time one of the leading preachers and pas- 
tors in the city of Boston, when he came 
to New Hampshire to deliver a lecture 
before my school, remarked to me that he 
had always regretted his decision to enter 
professional life while yet so young, and with- 
out more careful preparation. He said: 
" Had I realized the possibilities of life, 
I should have taken a thorough collegiate 
course." Yet Dr. Miner was a poor boy 
and entirely dependent upon himself, and 
his regret was expressed with this fact fully 
in view. And many others, under similar 
circumstances, have felt and spoken in the 
same way, — but who ever heard a success- 
ful professional man who had enjoyed the 
advantages of a liberal education regret 
that he had spent so much time and money 
in academic and collegiate study ? Still, we 
are told that very many of our most dis- 
tinguished men in public life have gained 
their positions without college training. 
But even these exceptions do not militate 
78 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

against liberal culture, as Dr. Miner's case 
plainly shows. If they have done so much 
and so well without the advantages of sys- 
tematic instruction, they would have done 
more and better with them. 

Too long our professional schools have 
held a rank hardly above that of trade 
schools, and have been producing phy- 
sicians who are nothing but physicians, 
lawyers who are nothing but lawyers, and 
clergymen who are nothing but clergymen, 
— men capable of devotion to merely a 
single branch of knowledge. It is an en- 
couraging fact that there is an increasing 
determination among our leading educators 
to improve professional training, and espe- 
cially to demand the acquisition of that 
general knowledge which makes a truly 
cultivated man a prerequisite to professional 
study. 

But the main question returns for a more 
detailed answer, — What was lost and gained 
in consequence of my " straightened cir- 
cumstances ? " The fact that I was en- 
tirely dependent upon myself cost me 
more time in preparing for college. I 
79 



Reminiscences of School Life 

suffered on the score of health from irregu- 
lar habits of living, — self and club board- 
ing. I lost the benefit of careful and 
systematic study, and consequently class 
standing in scholarship, which I might 
have held, if I could have had the same 
opportunity that many of my classmates 
enjoyed. 

On the other hand, I gained physical 
vigor from the necessity of manual labor, 
and lasting benefits from contact with the 
busy world, and, with all, I acquired the 
habits of self-reliance, industry, and econ- 
omy, without which success in life is im- 
possible. Dr. Cable has told us that "hard 
experiences are often the foundation stones 
of a successful life." 

I pause right here to make a confession 
of an absolute failure when preparing for 
college at Kimball Union Academy, — the 
only complete failure that I am willing to 
acknowledge in my busy life. This re- 
sulted from an effort to bake a johnny-cake 
on a box-stove in an open dish. The 
meal was mixed with water all right, but 
the baking was a failure for causes then 
80 



The Student Becomes a Schoolmaster 

beyond my knowledge or control. And 
my loss of time, all the capital invested, 
and my supper, were irrecoverable. The 
cooking teacher was not then " abroad." 

Now I may refer to the balance-sheet in 
the ledger of poverty and wealth. How 
stands the account between the poor and 
the wealthy student who have pursued and 
completed a course of study side by side, 
and passed out into the world for another 
trial of ability and strength ? Success cer- 
tainly crowns the life of the poor student, 
who worked his way, as frequently as that 
of the rich who was carried through his 
course of study. The history of every 
college in the nation, and the experience 
and observation of living men in active life, 
confirm this view of the question. 

There is one more item of the account 
which has not been placed upon the balance- 
sheet ; namely, the gain resulting from 
having broken away from the influences 
by which my boyhood was surrounded, to 
pursue a course of study, imperfect as it 
was. That it was a gain and not a loss, I 
have only to compare the results to my- 
6 8i 



Reminiscences of School Life 

self, my family, and the world, with those 
of many of my early companions, of at 
least equal ability and means, who re- 
mained at home. An education, however 
much it may have cost, if properly used, 
always pays with good interest on the in- 
vestment ; and the more thorough and ex- 
tensive, the more valuable it is. 



$2 



THE SCHOOLMASTER BECOMES 
A PRECEPTOR. 

BEFORE leaving college, I had ac- 
cepted an appointment by the 
trustees of Hebron Academy as their 
principal. I had already taught there, as 
an associate principal and principal, for 
two terms, as before stated ; now I was to 
take charge of the school, to begin in the 
autumn of that year. This was one of 
those new-born and short-lived academies 
which accomplished much for the cause 
of education in their day. Among the 
trustees was the distinguished Colonel 
Berry, who became the war governor of 
New Hampshire in 1861-62, and lived to 
be nearly ninety-eight years of age. The 
school opened in September, 1842, with en- 
couraging prospects. Among my pupils 
was Austin F. Pike, who recited to me his 
last academic lesson in the academy, and at 
33 



Reminiscences of School Life 

once entered upon the study of law with 
Judge Nesmith of Franklin, became a lead- 
ing lawyer in the State, speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and United 
States Senator. 

Soon after accepting this position, I 
married Miss Sarah A. Cummings of And- 
over, Mass. She acted as preceptress in 
this and other schools, and in the care of 
our large family of pupils, with marked 
ability and fidelity for twenty-one years, to 
the day of her death, and she contributed 
largely to my success. It was not our pur- 
pose to make Hebron our permanent home, 
and we were not long in waiting for a change. 
About the middle of the winter term, 
Messrs. Short, Latham, and Howard, three 
prominent men of Thetford, Vermont, and 
trustees of Thetford Academy, called 
upon us, spent the night, and looked up 
our record in the school and neighbor- 
hood, and before leaving informed me that 
I was elected principal of their academy. 
After some investigation, I accepted, to 
begin in April, 1843. This gave us but 
two terms at Hebron. 
84 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

Thetford Academy 

Thetford Academy is one of the oldest 
institutions of its kind in New England, 
having been founded in 1819. Among 
its founders and most influential early- 
trustees was the famous Dr. Asa Burton, 
the great theologian of his day. He was 
the author of the " Taste Scheme," as it 
was called, in distinction from the " Exer- 
cise Scheme " as held by Dr. Emmons 
of Franklin, Mass. These two theological 
leaders engaged in a long and animated 
discussion on this subject ; the one main- 
taining that a man's taste (or disposition) 
constituted him saint or sinner, though it 
remain dormant ; the other claiming that 
there could be no holiness or sin unless 
this disposition is exercised. Dr. Burton 
was pastor of Thetford village church for 
more than fifty years. 

I recall with deep interest the board of 
trustees who served in that oflice during 
my administration. They were able, wise, 
and public-spirited men, always ready to 
sustain and aid their principal every way in 
85 



Reminiscences of School Life 

their power. The board consisted of Hon. 
Simeon Short, Rev. E. G. Babcock, Rev. 
Erdix Tenney of Lyme, N. H., Prof. Ira 
Young, and Prof. Alpheus Crosby of 
Dartmouth College, Dr. Nathaniel White, 
Dr. E. C. Worcester, Abijah Howard, 
Esq., and Enoch Slade, Esq. I would 
not fail to recognize the intelligent and 
hospitable citizens and their families in that 
neighborhood who contributed cheer and 
relief to our careworn lives by their kind 
words and social entertainments. 

In alluding to the two pastors of the old 
church on Thetford Hill, and their con- 
nection with the academy, I will mention 
that soon after we were settled at Thetford, 
I wrote, by request of the editors, a series 
of articles for the " Congregational Journal,'' 
published at Concord, N. H., on the life 
and character of Dr. Burton, which led me 
to investigate and to measure his immense 
power and great influence over that com- 
munity. Rev. Mr. Babcock, our pastor, 
was a strong man and an able writer, but 
not a pulpit orator. He had formed one 
peculiar habit in his study, which had great 
86 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

power over him. He always wrote in full 
his sermons for each Sabbath service, and 
read them with great rapidity. These 
sermons were always written between Friday 
noon and the hour when they were to be 
delivered. He told me that he could 
write them at no other time. 

The academy which was now to come 
under my management, and for the success 
of which I was to be responsible for the 
next twelve years, had run very low under 
its former principal. He had already left 
town, and the last term of the year was in 
charge of Judge S. Short, one of the 
trustees, and numbered but thirty-two 
students, — boys and girls gathered from 
the immediate neighborhood. 

On surveying the ground, I understood 
the situation. The old academy building, 
worth perhaps ^500, was the only prop- 
erty held in trust by the trustees. The 
school had to be supported by a low-rate 
tuition. The capacity of the village to 
accommodate students from abroad was 
limited. But this was not the time to 
worry about insufficient accommodations ; 
87 



Reminiscences of School Life 

for the school to be accommodated was not 
in sight. The outlook was not encourag- 
ing, nor calculated to awaken large expecta- 
tions or great enthusiasm. But we had 
come to stay for several years, and I settled 
down upon the purpose to win success by 
earnest, persistent toil, if success were pos- 
sible. I arranged to open the fall term 
with a full board of teachers, and a course 
of study, both classical and English, suf- 
ficient to fit for college and for business. 
I sent out my circulars broadcast, and 
very soon there appeared another circular, 
almost an exact copy of mine, except the 
names, announcing a select school, to begin 
at the same time, at Post Mills (a village 
in the same town, two miles away). I had 
promised lectures from abroad to be deliv- 
ered to my school. The Post Mills echo 
circular repeated, without quotation marks, 
lectures from abroad. This school was de- 
signed as a rival to Thetford Academy, but 
it did not prove very discouraging. Our 
terms opened, and the roll-call showed one 
hundred and four students at Thetford, and 
about thirty at Post Mills ; and as the 
88 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

term progressed, the flood-tide seemed to 
be running my way. I was the only 
lecturer " from abroad " secured at Post 
Mills. That school broke up at the end 
of the term, and most of the students 
entered my school when it next opened. 
There was now no rival academy nearer 
than Kimball Union, at Meriden on the 
south, and St. Johnsbury Academy on the 
north. 

The winter and summer terms were 
always smaller than the fall and spring 
terms, but the school continued to in- 
crease each corresponding term of the year, 
until the village was literally packed, and 
every available spare room was occupied by 
students. The attempt was now made to 
expand. Burton Hall, named after Dr. 
Burton, was erected on the north side of 
the academy, to furnish rooms for young 
men ; and " Mrs. Burton Hall,"on the south 
side, to furnish rooms for young women. 
Four dormitories were finished off in the 
attic of the academy. This mention re- 
calls the history of the short life of a 
remarkable young man who was then one 
89 



Reminiscences of School Life 

of my students, — David Conant from 
Lyme, N. H., the brother of Judge C. C. 
Conant of Greenfield, Mass. He was a 
mechanic. He undertook the building of 
these rooms. He drove the ox-team 
which drew the lumber, and himself, alone, 
constructed the rooms, thus earning so 
much toward defraying his expenses in 
school. We will follow Conant a little 
further. He finished his academic studies, 
and entered the Medical College at Han- 
over, from which he graduated in due time, 
soon gained a large practice in New York 
City, and was, when he died, a professor 
and lecturer in several medical colleges. 
He died early, of a malignant disease con- 
tracted in his practice. 

Our additional rooms were soon filled, 
and we were more than ever in need of still 
better accommodations. Each announce- 
ment in the papers that the village was full 
brought a new stage load of applicants for 
admission. These were domiciled in the 
suburbs, even at some distance from the 
academy. The school continued to in- 
crease until two hundred and fifty- two were 
90 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

enrolled and on the ground at the same time, 
packing the boarding-houses to repletion. 
In 1850, four hundred and thirty-six differ- 
ent students entered the academy from 
fifteen states. At that time, half-fare railroad 
tickets to and from Thetford could be bought 
at the depots in Boston and Worcester, Mass. 
I had increased my board of instruction, 
expanded and perfected the courses of study, 
and organized regular classes for graduation, 
both classical and English. At the close 
of the second year, and ever afterwards, 
large classes graduated and entered college, 
or pursued the business of active life. 
During the twelve years, one hundred and 
thirty-three young men entered Dartmouth, 
Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Williams, Brown, 
Middlebury, Tufts, and Vermont Univer- 
sity, and nearly all of them graduated 
in due time. Quite a number of young 
ladies, and some young men, from these 
classes entered upon the profession of 
teaching as their life-work. The number 
of students enrolled in Thetford Academy 
during my administration was more than 
twenty-five hundred. 
91 



Reminiscences of School Life 

I cherish an affectionate and grateful re- 
membrance of the forty-eight associates and 
assistant teachers employed in Thetford 
Academy during this period. We always 
worked together in perfect harmony. 

My labors at Thetford Academy were 
incessant. I had the entire financial busi- 
ness of the school to conduct without a 
clerk ; the management and discipline of 
the school, the oversight of every depart- 
ment of instruction, and taught classes my- 
self, from six to seven hours per day, five 
days per week. Added to this, and an 
occasional lecture before the school, was 
the labor of conducting a Bible class, con- 
sisting of the whole school. Sabbath morn- 
ing ; a class of young men at noon, in the 
church ; of attending two church services 
during the day, and a social religious meet- 
ing in the academy in the evening, in which 
I usually took part. And even this was 
not all. I had reason to expect a call at 
any time, at unseasonable hours, to some 
boarding-house or store to quell a disturb- 
ance or settle a dispute. 

Vacations were a welcome change^ but no 
92 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

relief from toil and care. A new school 
must then be gathered, and arrangements 
made for the ensuing term. This was my 
work, my care, and my responsibility, with- 
out cessation, during the entire twelve 
years. Yet, though excessive, I did not 
regard it as a burden that could not be 
borne. I fully realized that " eternal vigi- 
lance " and hard labor are the price of suc- 
cess. Were I again placed in the same 
position, however, with my present views, I 
should devote more hours, especially on 
the Sabbath, to rest or recreation. 

Thetford Academy Seventy-Fifth 
Anniversary 

The memory of that throng of students 
who gathered on Thetford Hill during the 
eventful years of my administration as the 
head of the old academy has always been 
pleasant and inspiring ; but this feeling was 
greatly intensified by attending the seventy- 
fifth anniversary of its life in June, 1894. 
I was invited to return to review the scenes 
of my former labors, and to meet my old 
93 



Reminiscences of School Life 

students, many of whom I had not seen for 
forty or fifty years. I expected to meet 
them, but the young men and women who 
in the days of our school life recognized 
me as their preceptor were not there. 
Only their representatives had come to the 
anniversary. 

The ringing of the old academy bell 
called to a reception in the hall where, half 
a century ago, we were accustomed to 
assemble daily. I answered the call, and 
was greeted at the door by scores of people 
who claimed to know me, but many of 
whom I did not recognize. I pressed my 
way into the chapel. Every seat and all 
the standing room were occupied. They 
rose to greet their old preceptor, not the 
earnest and loyal students I used to meet 
there, but careworn and hoary-headed men 
and women. They bore the same names, 
unless they had been changed by marriage, 
and claimed identity ; but I could not recall 
them. 

On the platform were seated several of 
my former associate teachers, and by the 
table stood the presiding officer of the 
94 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

occasion. It was not John Eaton, the 
noble, unassuming, and faithful young man 
who used to come to me for instruction 
and counsel, but General John Eaton, 
LL.D., from Washington, D. C, a man of 
national reputation, gained by his official 
connection with the government during 
the Civil War, his sixteen years of service at 
the head of the National Bureau of Edu- 
cation, and the ex-president of Marietta 
College. Later we were called to the vil- 
lage church, which was filled to overflowing, 
to listen to the historic address and poem 
prepared for the occasion. The genial 
general was the presiding officer there also, 
as at the morning session. It had been 
announced that the address would be de- 
livered by Carlos Slafter, and the poem by 
Edward A. Jenks ; but this was a mistake. 
These gentlemen were Rev. Professor 
Carlos Slafter, who had been forty years 
the honored principal of Dedham (Mass.) 
High School, and Hon. Edward A. 
Jenks, A.M., the scholarly gentleman and 
successful business man from Concord, 
N. H. 

95 



Reminiscences of School Life 

Again, In the evening, we repaired to the 
church for another session, to be presided 
over by Chester C. Conant, and addressed 
by Thomas W. Bicknell, and others. But 
the presiding officer was Judge Chester C. 
Conant of Greenfield, Mass., and the address 
was by Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D., 
of Providence, R. I. In the afternoon we 
were invited to the large tent on the Com- 
mon, to partake of a sumptuous dinner, 
and to listen to the after-dinner speeches. 
There Dr. Bicknell appeared, presiding at 
the tables. He had grown so tall since he 
left the old academy, as a student, that he 
hardly knew whether he lived on earth or 
in the heavens. His preceptor, in his after- 
dinner speech, gave as a reason for his 
altitude that he was reared in Rhode Island, 
a State so small that he could grow only in 
one direction, and that his baldness might 
be due to the fact that his head reached 
beyond the region of vegetation. Among 
the speakers at the table were Hon. Henry 
Albert Morrill, LL.D., professor in the 
Cincinnati (Ohio) Law School ; Rev. Alva 
Hovey, D.D., president of the Theological 
96 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

Seminary at Newton Centre, Mass. ; Judge 
C. C. Conantj Hon. Gilbert E. Hood, and 
Rev. Wm. S. Palmer, D.D. These were 
all former students in Thetford Academy, 
but now, with many others present and 
absent whom they represented in the 
different professions and honorable avoca- 
tions, are among the foremost men in the 
life of the nation. They had come back to 
tell us what the young men who gathered 
for instruction in these consecrated halls, 
during this peroid of the school's history, 
had accomplished in the world. It may 
here be safely claimed, that no academy in 
the nation, in the same length of time, ever 
graduated an abler, better, and more suc- 
cessful class of students. 

The lawyers present at the anniversary 
represented Judge Gleason of Thetford, 
trustee of the academy ; Hon. A. W. 
Tenney of Brooklyn, N. Y., United States 
district attorney and judge and orator at 
General Grant's tomb on memorial day 
last year ; Hon. Lyman Hinckley, late 
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont ; Hon. 
H. J. Boardman, president of the Massa- 
7 97 



Reminiscences of School Life 

chusetts Senate for two years ; Judge J. 
B. Richardson, of the Supreme Court in 
Boston ; Hon. A. S. Marshall, district 
attorney for New Hampshire; Hon. Ira 
Colby of Claremont, N. H., and many 
others worthy of honorable mention. 

The physicians present represented such 
men in the profession as Prof C. P. Frost, 
LL.D., for many years at the head of the 
Medical College at Dartmouth College ; 
Dr. Wm. L. Worcester, an expert physician 
for mental diseases and an able writer on 
medical subjects ; Dr. Osgood Mason of 
New York City ; and many other able 
practitioners. 

The clergymen present represented Rev. 
Gustavus D. Pike, D.D., of the American 
Missionary Association ; Rev. Wilson A. 
Farns worth, D.D., for more than forty years 
a leading missionary in Turkey ; Rev. Alfred 
Putnam, D.D. ; Rev. George W. Gardner, 
D.D.; Rev. Calvin C. Hulbert, D.D. ; 
and a score of other able preachers and 
pastors. 

The teachers present represented three 
college presidents, — General Eaton, Dr. 
98 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

Gardner, and Dr. Hulbert ; at least three 
college professors, — Professor Ruggles of 
Dartmouth, Professor Woodworth of North 
Dakota University, and Professor Perry of 
Williams College, a distinguished author 
and the champion of Free Trade, who was 
once pitted against Horace Greeley in a 
public discussion on that subject. The last 
time I met Professor Perry, he spoke with 
much earnestness upon his favorite subject, 
alluding sneeringly to "a duty on hides," 
which was then, as more recently, under dis- 
cussion in Congress. I said to him that he 
doubtless knew more than I did upon this 
disputed question, but one thing I did 
know, I performed my duty on hides 
while he was my pupil, and to this he 
might owe his success in life. Hon. Gil- 
bert E. Hood, my honored successor as 
principal of Thetford Academy ; Hon. 
Edward Conant, for six years state super- 
intendent of public instruction, and now 
principal of a Vermont Normal School ; 
Hon. Frederick Bates, superintendent of 
schools and Mayor of Titusville, Pa. ; 
Prof George C. Mack, Prof Henry 
99 



Reminiscences of School Life 

Babcock, and Prof. S. W. Burnham of the 
Chicago University, are also among the 
distinguished professional teachers edu- 
cated at Thetford Academy during these 
years. 

The old academy also shared in the 
sacrifices and honors of the Civil War. 
General Eaton gained his title by his 
official connection with the Union Army ; 
among others who went to the front were 
Gen. Charles E. Hovey, Gen. John B. 
Sanborn, Majors E. W. and E. P. Farr, 
Col. S. A. Adams, Captains George Farr, 
T. Sanborn, and Edwin B. Frost, surgeons. 
Prof C. P. Frost, Doctors H. H. Gilbert, 
G. M. Eaton, and R. O. Mason. General 
Hovey was severely wounded, and Captain 
Frost was shot dead on the battlefield 
while acting as major. 

This anniversary recalled the names and 
deeds of many wives, mothers, and teachers 
who were my pupils at Thetford Academy. 
They too, as equals of the young men with 
whom they were associated as students, in 
scholarship, fidelity, and loyalty, deserve 
honorable mention. Mrs. Mary (Clemant) 

100 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

Leavitt, of Hilo, Hawaii, leads this noble 
band. She was sixty-three years old, she 
said, and the last eleven years she had 
travelled 160,000 miles, sailed in 114 
steamers, written 32,564 pages, held 2,301 
meetings, employed 252 interpreters to 
change words into 47 different languages, 
and formed 140 societies. All this time 
she travelled alone. She devoted fifteen 
years to missionary work without compen- 
sation, except her living and necessary ex- 
penses ; organizing, teaching, and lecturing 
in thirty-five different countries. Two of 
her three daughters are prominent teachers 
in the United States, and the third is the 
mother of her three grandchildren. Twenty- 
five other representative wives and mothers 
of distinguished merit, most of whom were 
teachers before their marriage, might here 
be named, if space would allow, and a score 
of single lady teachers, five of whom have 
been missionaries in foreign lands. In this 
allusion to my former pupils in this acad- 
emy, I have coupled the living with the 
dead. Each class deserves equal recogni- 
tion and affectionate remembrance. 



Reminiscences of School Life 

" The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain. 
Where are the others ? Voices from the deep 
Caverns of darkness answer me, * They sleep.' 
I name no names ; instinctively I feel 
Each at some well-remembered grave will kneel. 
And from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss. 
For every heart best knoweth its own loss. 
I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white 
Through the pale dusk of the impending night ; 
O'er all alike the impartial sunset throws 
Its golden lilies mingled with the rose ; 
We give to each a tender thought, and pass 
Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass. 
Unto those scenes frequented by our feet 
When we were young and life was fresh and sweet." 

Never was there a better, more faithful 
and loyal class of students in one body than 
were among the two thousand five hundred 
who were under our care at Thetford Acad- 
emy. Some manifested boyish propensities 
and indulged in boyish tricks, but very few 
were ever guilty of wilful insubordination. 
Of two or three exceptions I have spoken 
in another connection. One of the loyal 
rogues told me, twenty years afterwards, 
that I should not have caught him in Par- 
son Babcock's dooryard blowing a horn if 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

I had not worn another man's hat and 
carried in my hand a horn captured from 
another fellow. A second one was caught 
carrying eggs and dishes from the store to 
his room, preparatory to a night supper, 
which he knew was not allowed. He was 
required to deposit the articles in my office 
for the night, and the next morning, in the 
presence of all observers, to return them to 
the store where they were purchased. At 
the breakfast-table this young man re- 
marked to his fellow-students that " he 
should have to keep a hen in his room to 
lay eggs, as it cost too much to pass them 
through the custom-house." Still another 
rogue bore patiently the mortification of 
exposure of the fact that I had pulled him 
out from under a bed where he had at- 
tempted to hide himself from my presence, 
leaving his hat and one shoe as silent wit- 
nesses of his guilt. But cases like these 
were only episodes in the routine of a 
pleasant school life. It was our aim in this 
and all our other schools to bring students 
under the influence of Christian principles, 
and to guide them in the duties of the 
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Reminiscences of School Life 

Christian life : to inspire as well as to teach ; 
to make men and women worthy of honor, 
and qualified for usefulness in their day and 
generation. 

The question here arises. Why should 
we, or why did we, think of leaving Thet- 
ford Academy, since we had been there so 
long, and were so favorably settled? We 
had no such purpose in mind, long before 
the decision was made. I had refused two 
earnest calls to the principalship of other 
schools, — one a new academy at Oxford, 
N. H., and the other a ladies' seminary 
at Orange, N. J. But with all the kindness 
and co-operation proffered us by the trus- 
tees and leading citizens in the community 
at Thetford, we were much annoyed by 
the frequent collisions between another 
class of citizens and our students. A large 
school gathered from town and city always 
contains some roguish young fellows who 
enjoy boyish tricks. Though they mean 
no serious harm, they want to see what will 
be done about it, when they remove sign- 
boards from their places on the cross-roads 
to the entrance of some dooryards, or hang 
104 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

some gate taken from a garden fence across 
the highway, or remove the tongue from 
the village church bell on Saturday night. 
And these rogues always seek to annoy 
those citizens who have the least judgment 
in dealing with such cases. Irritated by 
such offences, which are always charged to 
the students, with or without evidence, 
these citizens become very much enraged, 
and declare the academy in town a nuisance, 
and prosecute a religious warfare upon 
the suspected parties. 

A case to illustrate is fresh in mind. 
One of these citizens and a student chanced 
to meet at the store. A controversy arose 
between them. The student had stepped 
upon the citizen's toes on a previous occa- 
sion. The citizen threw the student into 
the wood-box. The student rallied, and, 
seizing a burning lamp from the counter, 
threw it against the citizen's head, inflicting 
a wound which required surgical treatment. 
The student sent for his principal, acknowl- 
edged to him the wrong he had done, and 
expressed a willingness to do anything 
that he decided just and proper to make 
105 



Reminiscences of School Life 

restitution. But the injured citizen would 
hsten to no settlement by agreement or 
arbitration. The offender must be prose- 
cuted. I urged a settlement by arbitration, 
and pledged that the young man should 
abide by the judgment, but to no effect. I 
then said, " Proceed with your prosecution. 
I shall defend and protect my student." 
But when the sheriff came for his prisoner, 
he was not there, but in another State, on 
his way home ! I was very much disgusted 
and exhausted, and on going to my room, 
near midnight, found among my letters 
which came in the last mail, a call to take 
the principalship of North Granville (N. Y.) 
Ladies' Seminary. I at once replied, favor- 
ing the proposition, and promised to make 
a visit to investigate. The result was 
the acceptance of the call and a resignation 
of my position at Thetford. There prob- 
ably had been no day before, during the 
twelve years of my life at Thetford, when 
I should have considered this call favor- 
ably. But the die was cast, and the change 
had to be made. The announcement created 
much excitement in the school and neigh- 
io6 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

borhood, and many strong expressions of 
regret followed, even by those who had 
made all the trouble. 

Incidental Occurrences 

I HERE recall two or three incidents which 
occurred during this period of my school 
life worthy of note in this connection. 
On accepting the position as principal of 
Thetford Academy, I found myself within 
twenty-five miles of Kimball Union 
Academy, and Dr. R., my old preceptor, 
was still in charge. Our schools now 
came into sharp competition for patronage. 
Thetford at this time quite equalled Kim- 
ball Union in numbers, and although our 
boys could not afford the time and money 
for the additional year of preparatory study 
required there, as many entered Dart- 
mouth, each year for several years, from 
my school as from his, and when gradu- 
ating they shared equally the college 
honors. These facts were naturally dis- 
tasteful to the good Doctor, and he did not 
hesitate to express his astonishment and 
views upon the subject. This rivalry be- 
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Reminiscences of School Life 

tween the two principals became contagious, 
and was shared by the students, and the 
two schools were brought into collision. 
The class from each school, on entering 
college, maintained its loyalty and strove 
to excel its rival. Kimball Union Acad- 
emy had long been under Dr. R.'s man- 
agement, while the principal of Thetford 
Academy had recently taken charge of 
that institution. The system of govern- 
ment adopted at Thetford was radically 
different from that in vogue at Kimball 
Union, and as unchangeable as the laws of 
the " Medes and Persians." Both were 
mixed schools. The young women boarded 
in the same families and recited in the same 
classes with the young men. At Thetford 
the aim of the principal was to allow them 
to mingle socially under proper regulations 
and restraints, while at Kimball Union they 
were forbidden to mingle socially. The 
purpose of the one was to regulate their 
intercourse ; that of the other, entirely to 
separate them, except when at meals or in 
the classroom. The result of these two 
methods of treatment tested the merits of 
io8 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

each. In the one case, quiet and good 
order prevailed, and no case of gross im- 
propriety ever occurred. In the other, 
constant irritation and law-breaking brought 
the students into conflict with the prin- 
cipal, and secret interviews, walks, and 
rides were planned and executed. If they 
were caught the offenders suffered severe 
punishment. Cases might be cited to illus- 
trate. The question of mixed or separate 
schools, which is the better system ? is not 
raised here, but — How shall the mixed 
academy be managed ? 

While in charge of Thetford Academy, 
I was accustomed to invite distinguished 
lecturers from abroad to address my school. 
I had invited Mr. Justin Morrill — then a 
bright young man living in Strafford, but 
since, for thirty-seven years and now at the 
age of eighty-eight, an able and honored 
member of the United States Senate from 
Vermont — to deliver a lecture. In this 
case, it was an exchange. In compen- 
sation for his lecture, I lectured before 
his village Lyceum. I remember when 
he was introduced to the audience, he 
109 



Reminiscences of School Life 

began by saying that he had heard of a 
clergyman claiming for himself only mod- 
erate ability, who, on exchange of pulpits, 
always brought a peck of beans to pay 
the balance. He expressed regret that he 
had forgotten his beans. I have spoken 
with high commendation and great interest 
of our Thetford trustees, of the intelli- 
gence and culture of the leading citizens 
and their families in that neighborhood, 
and of their cordiality towards us, their 
principals, and interest in our school. But 
every village, like every circus, has its 
clown, and we had one among our patrons. 
He was no fool, but rather very bright, 
intelligent, and well disposed, and when 
sober manifested many manly qualities. 
He was a genuine wit. One warm sum- 
mer day, he came into the village on horse- 
back, and rode up to the store. His horse, 
under the sting of flies and bees, became 
very restless, and in his efforts to fight the 
annoying insects, he kicked his hind foot 
into the stirrup with the foot of the rider. 
" Well, well," said R., addressing him- 
self to the horse, " old fellow, if you are 
no 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

going to get on, I must get off." Later on 
a very corpulent man in the neighbor- 
hood, weighing at least three hundred 
pounds, was taken sick and died. Mr. R. 
attended the funeral, and stood by the 
roadside, with other neighbors, when the 
funeral procession was passing. Turning 
to the person nearest to him, he whispered, 
" Really I should prefer, in this case, to be 
a mourner rather than a bearer'^ 

North Granville Ladies' Seminary 

In the summer of 1855, having accepted 
the principalship of North Granville 
(N. Y.) Ladies* Seminary, we left Thet- 
ford, on many accounts regretfully, to enter 
upon the duties of this new position. A 
new school building, which would accom- 
modate the family of the principal and 
some fifty boarding pupils, had been nearly 
completed, and a new school, in a new 
locality, was now to be gathered, mainly 
through my efforts. We were cordially 
welcomed by the citizens of the delightful 
village and the trustees of the seminary, 
and all seemed much interested in the 
III 



Reminiscences of School Life 

enterprise which had been undertaken ; but 
I soon found that the circumstances of the 
situation were pecuHar. Instead of half a 
dozen schoolmen, wisely chosen on account 
of their fitness to manage a literary institu- 
tion, I found a board of sixteen stock- 
holders, who gained their positions as 
trustees by virtue of their investment, and 
they had formed this corporation and 
erected this seminary as a business specula- 
tion. They were reputable men of means, 
good citizens, and well disposed towards 
the principals and the school, but a major- 
ity of them were profoundly ignorant of 
their own rights and duties growing out 
of their relations as trustees to the principal 
whom they had elected to manage their 
seminary, and of his duties and obligations 
to the patrons and pupils of the school. 
Some results of this ignorance will appear 
in the course of my narrative. 

The school opened very hopefully, early 
in September, and the prospect was en- 
tirely satisfactory to all interested. Fresh 
accessions of boarders came in at the open- 
ing of each new term, until the rooms 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

were all filled. Fully understanding the 
situation, I was very careful to explain to 
the trustees my method of management 
and the school regulations I proposed to 
adopt, and secured their entire approval. 
But I soon found that some of these 
trustees, notwithstanding their approval of 
what I had proposed to do, and was doing, 
had expressed dissatisfaction, because at 
our evening receptions the young men of 
the town and neighboring towns were not 
freely admitted and introduced to our 
young ladies in the parlor. They would 
not object to the rule on this point as 
applied to the general public, but thought 
the stockholders had a right to invite and 
introduce whom they pleased. They had 
met and passed a vote to this effect, and 
sent a committee to m^e to ask my ap- 
proval of this amendment to my laws. I 
requested a hearing before the board, which 
was granted. I reminded them that they 
had elected me to manage the school, and 
had approved my regulations, as explained 
to them, upon this very point. I said to 

them that the proposed change would 
8 113 



Reminiscences of School Life 

offend the parents of our young ladies, and 
might prove a great injury to the school. 
Finally, I suggested that the school could 
not prosper under the management of seven- 
teen heads, and if they had found that their 
principal was not capable of governing the 
school, I was ready to resign in favor of 
the man who could govern it, but I could 
not allow the trustees the favor they 
asked. The board was divided on the 
question of yielding the point. I left them 
to settle the matter in their own time and 
way. At the end of two weeks, I was 
informed that the members loyal to me 
had gained the victory, and that the board 
had passed a resolution, strongly expressed, 
giving me unbounded control. This put 
an end to all controversy as to the govern- 
ment of the school, and left me not only 
with the power, but also the responsibility 
of its management. 

Another incident occurred during the 
second or third year at North Granville 
which excited much interest at the 
time, and is worthy of notice here. I 
had in my employment a teacher who 
114 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

had proved irresponsible both financially 
and morally. This teacher purchased a 
valuable piano of Oliver Ditson and Com- 
pany of Boston, on trust (using my name 
without authority, to sustain his credit), 
promising to pay by instalments ; but he 
had failed to make any payments, as 
agreed. He then mortgaged this instru- 
ment as security for a fifty-dollar debt due 
one of our trustees. I felt bound to notify 
Mr. Ditson, and in reply he sent me a 
receipted bill for the piano, and charged it 
to my account, directing me to hold the 
instrument at all hazards. The trustee 
who held the mortgage sent the sheriff to 
attach the instrument. I protested. The 
officer finally said to me, if I would give 
him my check for fifty dollars, as proof of 
my sincerity and pledge to meet him in 
court, to settle the ownership of the piano, 
he would not insist upon its removal. I 
did so, not suspecting that the officer was a 
rascal, as he proved to be. But instead of 
holding the check as he promised, as a 
pledge of good faith, he at once gave it 
to the trustee to whom the teacher owed 
"5 



Reminiscences of School Life 

fifty dollars, in payment of the debt. The 
check was drawn on my bank at Salem, 
twenty miles away. As soon as I learned 
the facts in the case, I sent a messenger 
to stop payment. The trustee sent another 
messenger to collect it, but my messenger 
reached the bank first, and payment was 
refused. I then told my friend, the trustee, 
that if he undertook to collect the amount 
on that check he would regret it after- 
wards. He finally gave me the check, but 
still determined to secure the piano which 
was in the seminary. 

A lawyer in the neighborhood, who was 
one of my patrons, came to the rescue. He 
proposed to take the case in hand and get 
possession of the piano, relying for his fee 
upon what he could get out of the sale of 
the instrument above the fifty dollars due 
the trustee. On these terms he was em- 
ployed as prosecuting counsel. 

It was vacation at the seminary, and 
one morning the lawyer patron called at 
my office and paid my bill for the tuition 
of his daughter, and then said to me, " I 
am instructed to take possession of a 
ii6 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

piano belonging to your teacher, which 
is in the seminary.'* I replied, " My 
teacher does not own any piano in the 
seminary." " I know better," he answered, 
and started for the room where the piano 
was placed. I stepped in ahead of him and 
locked the door. He broke it open and 
placed an attachment upon the piano, 
and told me he would soon return with 
help to remove it. But when he came, he 
found a strong force of men in the room, 
who disputed his right to remove the 
piano. The struggle lasted all day, and 
at night the lawyer's party acknowledged 
defeat and retired. 

At this point I ordered this piano to be 
sent that night to Salem depot, and shipped 
to Boston, and the next morning I sent a 
rented piano to our depot, belonging also 
to Oliver Ditson and Company, believing 
that the prosecuting lawyer would see it 
pass his house and go for it, with the im- 
pression that this was the identical instru- 
ment claimed under the mortgage. The 
strategy was effective, and a large force was 
sent to capture the prize. We met them 
117 



Reminiscences of School Life 

with a show of force, to defend the prop- 
erty, but intentionally allowed them to tri- 
umph. They took the old piano from 
the depot under protest, and drove up 
through the village shouting triumphantly 
over their supposed victory, but when 
they landed it at the house of the trustee, 
they discovered that they had unlawfully 
taken a piano admitted to belong to an- 
other party, and carried it back to the 
depot, where it remained six months. 

I at once sued, and put the case into the 
Supreme Court. The whole county was in 
commotion over the affair. This struggle 
between the preceptor of the seminary and 
the pettifogger had been announced in the 
papers, and the result was known to the 
lawyers at the court then in session, and 
my unfortunate lawyer patron fared hard 
under criticism. At the end of six months, 
he came and begged for a settlement, which 
I accepted on condition of payment by 
him of one hundred and fifty dollars cost 
and damage. 

Thus peace was restored, the trustee 
smiled upon me submissively, and my 
ii8 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

patron returned his daughter to my school. 
Mr. Oliver Ditson was greatly amused by 
the whole transaction, and proposed to 
publish a piece of music entitled " The 
Squabble Galop/' dedicated to Lawyer 
Spencer ; but he did not live to carry out 
his purpose. 

Still another incident which occurred 
while I was in charge of North Gran- 
ville Ladies* Seminary is fresh in memory. 
Its recital will lead to the discussion of an 
important and practical school question. 
Dr. Joseph E. King, then a young man, 
who had been my rival in Vermont, as 
principal of Newbury Academy, twenty 
miles from Thetford, went to New York 
State before I did, to take charge of Fort 
Edward Seminary, — a very large, mixed 
boarding-school. My school at North 
Granville, forty miles away, was exclu- 
sively for young ladies. Soon after I had 
opened my school. Principal King un- 
masked his battery, and gave me and my 
system a broadside through the public 
press. "Where shall we educate our 
daughters ? " was the question which he 



Reminiscences of School Life 

undertook to answer, in a full-page article, 
in a large-sized weekly paper. Of course 
his conclusion was, that all parents should 
send their daughters to Fort Edward, to 
his model seminary, and not to North 
Granville to come under the " exclusive and 
aristocratic system of education" adopted 
there. His main argument, I remem- 
ber, was based on the " Heaven-ordained 
family," in which our wise Creator pur- 
posed to educate together the brothers 
and sisters. He insisted that the school, 
which is an expansion of the family, 
should be modelled after the same plan. I 
at once answered the article, and caused the 
publication in every newspaper in the 
county. 

To his main argument, I replied that 
there is a wide difference between the 
home with a half dozen children, of differ- 
ent ages, under the watchful care of anx- 
ious parents, and a boarding-school like 
Fort Edward, having from eight hundred 
to a thousand students of mature age, 
gathered from the cities, including, doubt- 
less, many whose character would not bear 

I20 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

investigation. In his rejoinder he took up 
my plea of moral danger, and Insisted that 
it had no force, as applied to Fort Edward 
Seminary, because he had made ample 
provision to guard against this danger. 
His students, he assured his readers, occu- 
pied distinct departments, one for the girls 
and the other for the boys, and they were 
separated by a brick wall, with no entrance 
doors, and, on the outside, during the hours 
of darkness, an ample police force was 
employed to guard the premises. In my 
rejoinder, I commended his vigilance and 
painstaking, but ridiculed his model family ; 
the idea of an old farmhouse with a brick 
wall running through the middle, and a 
policeman on the outside during the night, 
to keep the brothers and sisters apart ! 

The discussion continued six months, with 
increasing interest In the community ; and 
the result, as affecting my interest, was a 
large increase of attendance at my school ; 
and the climax of the discussion was an 
object lesson published in the same papers 
that had printed our articles, revealing the 
fact that one of Fort Edward's teachers 



121 



Reminiscences of School Life 

had been expelled for an offence grow- 
ing out of the peculiar relations of this 
monstrous family. Years afterwards. Dr. 
King's school building was burned to the 
ground, and in its place, under his direc- 
tion, there was erected a fine school build- 
ing, exclusively for young women, and Dr. 
King, the able and venerable principal, is 
still in charge (1898). That this dis- 
cussion was not personal, the following 
friendly note, recently received from the 
genial Doctor, will show : — 

Fort Edward, N. Y., July 6, 1897. 
My dear Dr. Orcutt, — From the height 
of my lofty pyramid of friends, I reach you my 
hand in greeting and congratulations. It is in- 
spiring now and then to see a Nestor still fighting 
in the front ranks. Your splendid persistence is 
a powerful object lesson to the coming genera- 
tion. In good health and with a strong heart, I 
am, 

Most truly yours, 

Joseph E. King. 

The question here naturally arises which 
of these two systems, the mixed or the 
separate school, should prevail ? With my 
122 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

fifteen years' experience in managing mixed 
schools, and twenty-five years at the head 
of ladies' seminaries, I have formed a 
decided opinion on the subject, which I 
may here properly express. My decision 
is that in schools of the primary grade, — 
indeed in all public schools whose pupils 
come from their homes, or board with 
friends, — there is not only no objection to 
co-education, but much in its favor. In 
academies, where students find homes in 
good families, and the school is under 
efficient management, experience and ob- 
servation confirm the opinion that the 
advantages and disadvantages nearly balance 
each other. In the boarding academy or 
seminary, especially where large numbers 
of students of mature age are associated, 
the mixed system is decidedly objection- 
able. In the college, as a rule, the mixed 
system is still more objectionable. When 
young women living near a college, and 
wishing to pursue that regular collegiate 
course of study, make application, there is 
no objection to admitting them. But the 
absolute union of the college for young 
123 



Reminiscences of School Life 

women with the college for young men 
would prove a serious disadvantage to both 
classes. To unite Wellesley with Williams, 
Smith with Dartmouth, or Vassar with Cor- 
nell, would be objectionable on the score of 
expense. As buildings could not be re- 
moved, the cost of the outfit would be at 
least double, and the expense of instruction 
would not be diminished. While it is ad- 
mitted, yea claimed, that young women are 
quite equal to the young men they would 
meet in the classes, in scholarly ability, and 
would compete with them successfully for 
college honors, yet the education of the 
young woman for her sphere of life requires, 
to some extent, a different course of studies; 
and this fact adds much to the objections 
to college co-education. At our colleges 
established exclusively for women, the course 
of studies is adapted to their wants ; and at 
our colleges established exclusively for young 
men, the course is suited to the train- 
ing they need to fit them for their life 
work. To unite them would jeopardize 
the interest of both parties, resulting in 
no additional benefit to either; and it 
124 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

will never be done. The discussion of 
the main question will be continued, but 
the union of these colleges will not be the 
result. There are now four hundred and 
fifty-one colleges and universities in this 
country, and one hundred and forty-three 
schools of higher learning, having thirty 
thousand students, open to women only. 
Forty-one colleges are absolutely closed to 
women. These may, ere long, admit a few 
women, as a matter of accommodation, as 
others have done ; but will men ever be ad- 
mitted into the colleges established for 
women only ? One hundred and forty-three 
institutions are closed to men, against forty- 
one closed to women. I have not here 
discussed the moral side of the question, 
but there is, as I have intimated, moral 
danger in co-education, as arranged in 
some large boarding-schools. 

While en route from Thetford to North 
Granville my dear wife, who had shared 
with me the labors and trials of my 
academic life, so far, expressed the fear that 
I had made a mistake in giving up my 
position where I had young men in train- 

125 



Reminiscences of School Life 

ing for college and for professional life, 
for one exclusively devoted to the educa- 
tion of young women. I replied that I 
thought that I had made no mistake, as 
the mothers and teachers of to-day will be 
the educators of the next generation of 
men and women, and so on through all 
time. I remembered the struggles of 
Mrs. Mary Hart Willard, in her girlhood, 
to secure an education for herself, and her 
heroic and successful efforts, in mature life, 
to establish and maintain a ladies* seminary 
at Troy, New York. She was the pioneer 
in this noble work. I recalled the marvel- 
lous struggle of Miss Mary Lyon, who, after 
serving an apprenticeship as an assistant 
in Mrs Grant's School for girls, in Ipswich, 
Massachusetts, opened " Mount Holyoke 
Female Seminary," and maintained there a 
school of high order to the day of her 
death ; that that seminary has grown into 
a first class college, and that under its 
inspiring influence Vassar, Wellesley, and 
Smith Colleges have sprung up, all labor- 
ing earnestly for the higher education of 
woman. I realized that the managers of 
126 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

these institutions have hold of the lever 
that moves the world ; and I was willing to 
contribute my share of effort and influence 
for the advancement of this noble course. 
I have never regretted that the last twenty- 
five years of my school life as preceptor 
were spent at the head of seminaries 
devoted exclusively to the education of 
young women. 

The course of studies adopted at this 
school for graduation, as at my other 
schools, was broad and thorough. I made 
provision for the study of the ornamental 
branches, such as music, drawing, and paint- 
ing, but insisted that they were only of 
secondary importance, and that the solid 
and disciplinary studies alone could lay the 
foundation for genuine scholarship and 
practical ability. I realized that only solid 
substances will take an ornamental polish. 
I have spent many hours in attempting to 
convince foolish mothers and would-be- 
lazy school-girls that a mere smattering 
or even a thorough knowledge of the 
ornamental branches, without the solid, and 
with a limited knowledge of common Eng- 
127 



Reminiscences of School Life 

lish branches, with no ability to write a 
respectable letter, is not an education. A 
full course of mathematics, including trigono- 
metry, the classics, and literature, with one 
or more of the modern languages, the 
natural sciences, mental and moral phil- 
osophy, and a thorough course of history 
and English literature, are as important for 
young women as for young men. 

Four large classes graduated from North 
Granville Ladies* Seminary during the five 
years of my administration. These gradu- 
ates have made a good record as wives and 
teachers, and some of them have gained 
high distinction. Most of the teachers 
employed in this, as well as in my other 
seminaries, were educated in my schools. 
They ranked high, and were very success- 
ful. I recall three of special ability to 
handle classes : Miss Lucy Brown, as a 
teacher of mathematics, was a fine scholar 
and " apt to teach," in a remarkable degree. 
She died too early, if judged from a human 
point of view. Mrs. Eliza (Du Bois) Frost, 
in English branches, who is the widow of 
the lamented Prof C. P. Frost, for many 
128 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

years at the head of the Medical College 
at Dartmouth. Her two sons are now 
professors in Dartmouth College. Mrs. 
Mary (Cobb) Hayes, for nine years a 
prominent teacher in my seminary, and 
since, for more than twenty years, the 
principal of the best family boarding and 
day school in the city of Boston. She 
graduated from North Granville Ladies' 
Seminary. 

My engagement under this contract had 
expired, and we had decided to seek a new 
field of labor, though earnestly urged by 
the trustees to renew the contract and re- 
main. Professor Charles F. Dowd, the 
originator of the change of time, as now 
indicated in the East and West, and at 
present and for many years principal of 
Temple Grove Ladies' Seminary at Sara- 
toga Springs, New York, was elected 
principal in my place. 

Glenwood Ladies' Seminary 

In July of i860, we removed to West 
Brattleboro, Vermont, to make ready to 
open a ladies* seminary as a private 
9 129 



Reminiscences of School Life 

enterprise. I had leased the old Brattle- 
boro Academy, with a boarding hall con- 
nected, and erected a new hall, having the 
capacity for some sixty more boarders. 
One hundred boarders could now be well 
accommodated with rooms in both halls, and 
at our long tables. I had furnished both of 
these halls, and graded the grounds taste- 
fully, building in the centre of a beautiful 
lawn a fountain which was constantly throw- 
ing into the air pure spring water from 
the hillside. I had expended in the entire 
outfit some twenty thousand dollars, and 
had named the institution Glenwood Ladies* 
Seminary, — a name suggested by the charm- 
ing scenery by which it was surrounded. 

I now selected my board of trustees and 
visitors, such men as were sure to help, and 
not trouble me. I sent out my circulars 
announcing a full board of teachers for 
every department of school work, and 
advertised through the press the new enter- 
terprise. I employed a new method of 
free advertising not on the program of 
advertising agencies. 

A Brattleboro editor had taken great 
130 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

pains to describe and extol this new enter- 
prise in the town, and, in alluding to the 
fountain on the lawn, he declared that it 
would throw water sixty feet high! A 
Burlington (Vermont) editor was very- 
sceptical, and forcibly expressed his dis- 
belief in the statement ; but the Brattleboro 
quill-man insisted, and challenged investiga- 
tion. This discussion lasted for several 
weeks, during which all the prominent at- 
tractive features and advantages of the new 
school were laid before the public. All 
these sources of information, with the sound 
of the hammer upon the new seminary 
hall, had given Glenwood Ladies' Seminary 
great notoriety, and the citizens of the whole 
town were waiting with impatient interest 
to witness the result. Some were hopeful 
that we should not be disappointed, and 
others very sceptical. Judge Clarke, one 
of the oldest citizens of the town, and a 
trustee of Brattleboro Academy, which I 
had leased, reminded me one day that they 
had for many years furnished the old 
academy and quite a large boarding hall, 
but it had never been half filled. He did 
131 



Reminiscences of School Life 

not understand, he said, why I had spent 
six thousand dollars in erecting a new hall 
before I knew that the old one would not 
fully accommodate all my boarding pupils. 
I asked him to wait, and I would show 
him reasons for my action. 

September came, and the day appointed 
for opening the school. I went to the 
village depot to meet any students and 
teachers who might come on the evening 
train. On inquiry, I was told that the train 
was late, and that a telegram had announced 
the reason, viz. : " Three carloads of young 
women were at Bellows Falls on their way 
to Glenwood Seminary." 

Before the end of that week, every avail- 
able room in both halls was occupied, and 
twelve boarders had taken rooms in a 
neighboring cottage. Counting the day- 
students, one hundred and twenty-five 
young ladies and twelve teachers were in 
their places, and the school was organized 
and ready for work. 

I had re-engaged several of the North 
Granville teachers, and some forty young 
ladies from that school had followed them 
132 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

to Glenwood. Before the end of the first 
year Glenwood Ladies* Seminary was as 
well known throughout the country as 
many older schools, and the young ladies, 
returning home for v^acations, were sure to 
bring back with them as many new stu- 
dents as necessary to fill the vacancies 
caused by the retiring of individuals and 
the graduating of classes. All that was 
now necessary, in providing for the future, 
was to make sure that a good school was 
maintained, and proper care taken of the 
business management. 

At North Granville Seminary, I had 
given all the attention that could be given, 
without a gymnasium, to physical culture. 
The best substitute for the marching 
drill was the family dance in the public 
parlor, which was thoroughly enjoyed, and 
of great practical benefit. At Glenwood 
this long neglected and important branch 
of education was made prominent. A fine 
hall for the practice of gymnastics was ready 
for use, and the daily exercise was required 
of all the boarders. Every intelligent edu- 
cator in the nation has always known that 
^33 



Reminiscences of School Life 

a sound body is a necessary condition of a 
sound mind, yet I am not aware that sys- 
tematic physical culture was introduced 
into any school, private or public, in New 
York, Vermont, or New Hampshire, until 
I introduced it into my schools in these 
States. 

This exercise is properly called gym- 
nastics, and the term is equally applicable 
when applied to the development of mind 
or the body. To the body, it gives health, 
gracefulness, ease and steadiness of carriage, 
strength, elasticity, and quickness of move- 
ment, self-control, and endurance. To the 
mind, it imparts a healthful vigor to every 
faculty, as it is developed through exercise 
in the process of educational training. 
These facts are now everywhere recognized 
by intelligent educators. 

For eight years, a large class of young 
ladies, having completed the prescribed 
course of study, graduated each year from 
Glenwood, and passed out into the busy 
world to engage in their life-work. Dur- 
ing the fifth year, an earnest call came to 
me from the trustees of Tilden Ladies' 
134 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

Seminary, at West Lebanon, New Hamp- 
shire, to accept the principalship of that 
institution. I decHned to consider it, on 
the ground that I had aheady a large and 
prosperous school on my hands. The call 
was soon repeated, with the offer that I 
might retain my school at Glenwood, and 
conduct Tilden in my own way, with perfect 
freedom. I reconsidered my decision, and 
in view of the overflow of students at 
Glenwood, and some other circumstances, 
I decided to accept the position. 

Tilden Ladies' Seminary 

Tilden Seminary had been in operation 
ten years, under the management of three 
principals, the last of whom had made so 
complete a failure that not one student was 
left in the school to tell the tale of the dis- 
aster. The building, delightfully located 
on an estate of four acres, on the New 
Hampshire side of the Connecticut River, 
was erected mainly through the munificence 
of Mr. William Tilden of New York, as a 
memorial to his birthplace. It contained 
a pleasant parlor and schoolroom, and 
135 



Reminiscences of School Life 

would accommodate the family of the prin- 
cipal and some fifty boarding pupils. I 
took a lease of the property, and proceeded 
to make the necessary arrangements to 
open the school in the spring of 1865, ^^ 
connection with Glenwood, already well 
established. 

As I have intimated, my family had been 
broken up. A new life had opened up 
before me, and I decided to make Tilden 
my future home, taking with me, as my 
wife. Miss Ellen L. Dana of Poughkeepsie, 
New York, who had been one of my 
teachers at Glenwood. It would not be 
possible to express in words the fidelity and 
loyalty with which she performed the duties 
of the responsible position which she as- 
sumed at Tilden, as preceptress, nor how 
large a part she has played as a beloved 
helpmeet and companion in whatever suc- 
cess I may have attained. 

Putting the building in order, I issued 
circulars announcing a board often instruc- 
tors, making complete provision for every 
department of a full and well-organized 
school, though no school was yet assured. 
136 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

In April, the school opened with some 
seventy-live students, including the day 
scholars, and ere long all the rooms were 
occupied by boarders. I had now the 
charge of two ladies' seminaries, in two 
States, and seventy miles apart, with twenty 
associate and assistant teachers, and about 
two hundred lady students ; and I divided 
my time between the two institutions, as 
circumstances required. 

Mr. Tilden, the founder of the seminary 
which bears his name, attended the first 
commencement, and, becoming interested in 
the manifestly improved condition and 
prospects of the school, and realizing the 
need of more and better accommodations, 
decided to appropriate twenty thousand 
dollars to add two spacious wings to the 
building. These wings were finished, fur- 
nished, and equipped for use in process of 
time. A steeple and bell had already been 
placed upon the old building, and some 
two hundred evergreens, transplanted from 
the nursery, ornamented the grounds. 
Three thousand dollars had been contrib- 
uted by the Tilden family to replenish the 
137 



Reminiscences of School Life 

library and laboratory. Four years of the 
school's life under the present administra- 
tion had now nearly expired, and the day 
was appointed for the annual commence- 
ment and dedication of the new building. 

Commencement and Dedication 

This was an occasion of great interest 
to the friends of Tilden Seminary. The 
exercises opened Sabbath morning, July 12, 
1869, in the village church, with the bac- 
calaureate sermon to the graduating class, by 
Rev. William S. Palmer, D.D., a former pupil 
of the principal while at Thetfprd Academy. 
His text was, " That our daughters may be 
as corner-stones polished after the similitude 
of a palace," a passage of Scripture which 
had been used as a motto in our catalogue. 
The graduating class numbered seventeen 
young ladies, representing eight different 
States. The examinations covered three 
full days, and received marked attention. 
The gymnastic exercise in the new gym- 
nasium, conducted by my daughter. Miss 
Mary F. Orcutt, the teacher in that depart- 
ment for six years, was attended by more 
138 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

than four hundred spectators. The dedica- 
tory exercise in the church was fully attended 
by an appreciative audience. The church 
was tastefully ornamented with evergreen. 
Over the front of the stage was suspended 
the class motto, Finis Coronal Opus, At 
the rear of the platform was placed a ped- 
estal on which stood the bust of Mr. Tilden, 
draped in black, with vases of white flowers 
on either side. Above this was suspended 
the inscription in large letters, " Our La- 
mented Benefactor." This motto was 
an expression of the feeling of sadness and 
regret felt by the audience that Mr. Tilden 
could not have been spared to witness this 
crowning glory of his benevolent enter- 
prise. 

Colonel J. D. Hosley, one of the trustees, 
and chairman of the building committee, 
made an address and delivered the new 
charter and keys to Mr. William Tilden 
Blodgett, a nephew of the founder, and 
his representative on this occasion. Mr. 
Blodgett made an interesting address in 
transferring the charter and keys to Presi- 
dent Smith of Dartmouth College, who 
139 



Reminiscences of School Life 

represented the trustees. Dr. Smith re- 
sponded in an appropriate and eloquent 
address. The singing of an original dedi- 
cation hymn closed these exercises. A large 
audience gathered in the church in the 
evening to listen to an address by Presi- 
dent James B. Angell, LL.D. (recently 
appointed by President McKinley as min- 
ister to Turkey), the reading of the report 
by the chairman of the examining commit- 
tee. Rev. C. C. Parker, of Gorham, Maine, 
and the address of the principal in conferring 
the diplomas upon the graduating class. 
The singing of the class hymn, composed 
by one of its members, closed the exercises 
of the week and day. 

This triumphant commencement, reveal- 
ing as it did the great improvements which 
had been made in the seminary, and the 
increased facilities now offered, attracted 
public attention, and ere long the wings as 
well as the body of the new seminary were 
filled with boarders. The new gymnasium 
gave opportunity for perfecting the arrange- 
ments for systematic physical culture, and 
it was improved. This new department of 
140 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

instruction attracted special attention. In 
course of the three years that the principal 
was a member of the General Court, from 
Lebanon, a large delegation from that body, 
on their way to Dartmouth College, called 
at Tilden to witness the gymnastic drill 
of the young ladies, and expressed great 
satisfaction. 

My early adoption and extensive use of 
Dr. Dio Lewis's system of gymnastics led 
to a personal acquaintance with its author. 
He was the originator of this system, and 
an enthusiast upon the subject, and he 
infused his own spirit into all with whom 
he came in contact. The subject was then 
new, and attracted much public interest and 
the usual amount of criticism from bigoted 
conservatives which every new departure 
from old methods is doomed to meet. All- 
wise fathers and conceited educators told us 
that their boys and girls had enough of 
physical exercise on the farm, in the work- 
shop, and at their homes, and needed no 
more; that their time in school should be 
devoted to study, and that already too many 
subjects were introduced into the school- 
141 



Reminiscences of School Life 

room. Horrified mothers cried out in 
alarm against the indelicacy and impropriety 
of the gymnastic suit required for their 
daughters in practice. The townspeople 
nicknamed this exercise the " Orthodox 
dancing school.'* Still Dr. Lewis persisted 
in the necessity of systematic physical devel- 
opment of the human body, by such a drill 
as his. system required, for health and vigor. 
Schools for instructing teachers to teach 
gymnastics were established. Harvard and 
Yale and Amherst and Dartmouth soon em- 
ployed gymnastic teachers, and required reg- 
ular gymnastic exercises. The subject was 
discussed at our educational meetings and, 
ere long, all the better academies and semina- 
ries In the land introduced physical culture 
as a regular school exercise. Modified 
systems have been introduced, and, to-day, 
no branch of education is more popular or 
more In demand than gymnastics for every 
grade of school, from the kindergarten to 
the college. Many features of Dr. Dio 
Lewis's system yet hold the public favor, 
and are retained in practice. 

The beneficial influence of this exercise 
142 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

upon the health of students was demon- 
strated and recognized during the few years 
of our Tilden school life. Professor Phelps, 
then at the head of the medical department 
of Dartmouth College, came to Tilden to 
visit his daughter and niece, then in the 
school. During an interview with the 
principal, he very properly took occasion 
to suggest the great danger to which the 
young ladies were exposed, with no motive 
or opportunity for physical activity, and 
proceeded to prescribe a course of treat- 
ment to prevent the inevitable evil results. 
The young ladies should not be required 
to study too many hours, should be regular 
in their habits of eating and sleeping, and 
should have at least three hours' exercise 
daily in the open air. I listened to him 
with attention and interest, and replied that 
I fully appreciated the wisdom and im- 
portance of his suggestions and instructions, 
and that I had given much attention to the 
health of my two large families at Tilden 
and Glenwood. In addition to insisting 
upon regularity of habits and free exercise 
in the open air, I required a daily, sys- 
143 



Reminiscences of School Life 

tematic drill In gymnastics, and, to show 
him the results of my treatment, I told him 
that during one year of school-Hfe experi- 
ence with these two families, numbering at 
least one hundred and fifty boarders, the 
services of a physician had not been required 
in a single instance. He seemed greatly 
surprised and interested, and said evidently 
I did not need his advice or prescriptions. 

This duplicate school arrangement, in 
managing Glenwood and Tilden Seminaries, 
lasted three years. At the end of this time, 
finding the care and labor excessive and 
somewhat burdensome, I sold out my 
interest at Glenwood, but continued my 
school at Tilden for twelve years, making 
fifteen years from the time I began here, 
with continued prosperity. One thousand 
young ladies had been enrolled at Tilden, 
and fifteen classes had graduated. 

Thirty-eight years had now elapsed since 
I commenced my academic life. During 
this time, from Thetford, North Granville, 
Glenwood, and Tilden, six hundred and 
four had graduated. Of these one hundred 
and forty-seven were young men, and four 
144 '■ 



Schoolmaster Becomes a Preceptor 

hundred and fifty-seven young women. 
Nearly all the young men completed a col- 
legiate course of study. A very large pro- 
portion of the women, after teaching a 
while, were married, and many others have 
occupied important positions in the school 
and in the family. The summary enrolment 
in all my public and private schools, during 
these forty years,was more than five thousand. 

While still connected with Tilden Semi- 
nary, its twenty-fifth anniversary was cele- 
brated, with great interest and enthusiasm, 
by a large gathering of former students, 
teachers, and other friends of the institution. 
The principal delivered the address of wel- 
come, which was followed by addresses of 
great interest, delivered by Hon. Richard 
B. Kimball, LL.D., the distinguished 
author, and the late ex-Senator J. W. 
Patterson of New Hampshire. 

Two facts may properly be mentioned 
here in regard to the academic institutions 
over which I presided. First, not one of 
them was endowed, they were all either 
new schools, or in a low condition in conse- 
quence of neglect or unskilful management. 
10 145 



Reminiscences of School Life 

Secondly, a very large majority of the 
students attending these schools were in 
moderate circumstances, and many were 
absolutely unable to prosecute their studies 
without aid. Scores of the latter class came 
to me for help ; and I adopted the rule never 
to reject an applicant of approved character, 
ability, and promise on account of poverty. 
Some needed only partial assistance ; others 
I carried through, providing board and 
tuition, and sometimes books and stationery 
also, entirely on trust. Such bills in the 
aggregate amounted to thousands of dollars. 
Many of those who contracted such debts 
made payment in full years afterwards ; 
others failed to do so for reasons beyond 
their control ; and a very few proved false 
and unworthy of the confidence I had 
placed in them. My experience in dealing 
with this class of students led me to believe 
that young women who have the ambition, 
ability, and energy to prosecute, with suc- 
cess, a course of study, but have not the 
ready money to pay expenses, are quite as 
reliable and worthy of trust as young men 
in similar circumstances. 
146 



VI 

VITAL EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS 

DURING my long experience as a 
teacher, many young men and women 
have asked my advice and opinion on vari- 
ous subjects which have a direct bearing on 
educational trainmg. I therefore digress 
for the time from the autobiographical nar- 
rative, hoping that these suggestions will 
be of value to those following in my foot- 
steps, as they are the result of a long 
tuition under that sternest of masters, 
" experience." 

Elements of Success in School Life 

I MAY here inquire what are the elements 
necessary for the success of the pupil and 
student, of* the schoolmaster and of the pre- 
ceptor, in their several spheres of action ? 
The success of the scholar depends not so 
much upon what others do for him as upon 
147 



Reminiscences of School Life 

what he does for himself; not so much 
upon favorable opportunities and increased 
facilities, as upon the proper use of such as 
he already enjoys. A good school, with 
skilful teachers and a large library, are use- 
ful and important ; but they have no power 
to impart scholarship and to create man- 
hood and womanhood. 

The mental athlete is the product of 
mental gymnastics. The ability to think, 
reason, and debate is acquired only by 
thinking, reasoning, and debating. Knowl- 
edge is not the chief aim or end of study, 
but mental discipline and culture. To solve 
a hard problem or to translate a difficult 
Latin or Greek sentence, is valuable mainly 
as a mental victory ; and often a failure to 
learn or recite a lesson is of more value to 
the student than success, as it may have 
cost him a greater effort. He who has 
gained the mastery over his own mental 
faculties, and the power of fixed attention 
and continued study upon the subject 
under investigation, is educated ; and the 
only condition of such an attainment is 
hard and persistent application. 
148 



Vital Educational Questions 

The success of the schoolmaster de- 
pends upon common sense, skill, and an 
earnest devotion to the work in hand. I 
have made a distinction in this treatise 
between the schoolmaster and the pre- 
ceptor ; have confined the schoolmaster to 
the public school, large or small, as the 
case may be, in which he has to teach and 
govern a promiscuous group of children 
and youth of different ages, dispositions, 
and conditions in life, and at the same 
time deal with a whole neighborhood of 
fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, 
grandfathers and grandmothers, some of 
whom are likely to claim the right to 
advise and dictate and criticise at every 
point of his experience. Common sense, 
which is the most uncommon of all human 
endowments, is indispensable for such a 
task. This alone will enable him to adapt 
himself to circumstances, and always to say 
and do the right thing at the proper time 
and in the best manner. The teacher who 
is destitute of this attribute is like a ship 
without an anchor. He may sail on suc- 
cessfully in fair weather, but when the 
149 



Reminiscences of School Life 

storm rages he is at the mercy of the 
waves. 

Both common sense and skill are natural 
gifts, and the candidate who is destitute of 
one or both had better seek some other 
employment than school-keeping. Earnest 
devotion to his work is another prerequi- 
site to success. The schoolmaster should 
understand that his school duties should 
occupy all his time and thought, and 
engage all his strength and energy. The 
man or woman who keeps school with a 
divided interest has no right to undertake 
a work so important. 

The preceptor holds a different position 
in some respects, hence he must possess 
some additonal qualifications. He is re- 
quired not only to keep school and deal 
with his patrons, but in many of our 
academies and seminaries he has to create 
his school, each term and year of his ad- 
ministration. These institutions depend 
upon public patronage for a supply of 
students, and must rely upon the popu- 
larity and personal efforts of the principal. 
Hence he must possess not only ability to 
ISO 



Vital Educational Questions 

teach and govern, but the power to win 
public favor and draw in students from 
towns near and far away, over a large terri- 
tory, and to contend with persistent com- 
petition. His school must gain public 
favor through his own personality and wise 
activity. If he cannot attract public atten- 
tion and gain public favor, he will fail, 
though he may be an able teacher and 
disciplinarian. The power to 'will and 
hold public favor Is also a natural gift, 
and must be possessed in addition to the 
other qualifications of the schoolmaster as 
described above. After all, the most im- 
portant word in the teacher's vocabulary is 
enthusiasm. From the gleanings of my 
school-life experience, I here offer the 
young teacher the following : — 

Pedagogic Truths and Suggestions 

" The teacher is born and not made,'' 
but the "born teacher" must be educa- 
ted. 

" As the teacher is, so is the school." 
The school is an expansion of the family, 
and the teacher acts in loco parentis, 
151 



Reminiscences of School Life 

That the teacher should be a noble man 
or woman is of great importance. 

Every teacher should be professionally 
educated, and should improve every oppor- 
tunity for self-culture while in service. 

All digested knowledge is helpful to the 
teacher. 

The teacher must enjoy the schoolroom, 
to be successful in it. 

The physiology and psychology of the 
educational problem are absolutely essen- 
tial. 

The teacher needs a courage that never 
fails, and a faith that never falters. 

The teacher should never fret nor scold 
in the presence of his pupils. 

A skilful teacher is more important for 
the school than approved methods. 

The good teacher is a character-builder. 

Example is more effective than teaching. 

The teacher^s success or failure is usu- 
ally settled the first week of school. 

The wise teacher encourages self-respect 
and self-reliance in his pupils. 

Discipline is a means and not an end ; it 
is a stimulant as well as a restraint. 



Vital Educational Questions 

Love of thinking and skill of thought 
work wonders. 

Industry is the best remedy for disorder 
in the schoolroom. 

Ridicule and sarcasm should never be 
indulged in the school. 

A noisy teacher makes a noisy school. 

The eye is more potent than the voice in 
preserving order. 

Education is neither a process of 
" pouring in " nor of " drawing out/* but 
of " training up." 

Pupils are sharp critics of their teachers, 
and good judges of their merits. 

The school is making the future citizens 
of our Republic good or bad. 

The patriotic teacher alone is qualified 
to train our children for citizenship. 

Women teachers are coming to the 
front, and are a great power in our nation. 

Enthusiasm in the teacher works won- 
ders. 

Self-control is the teacher's great se- 
curity. 

Independent thinking is an end to be 
sought in school-work. 
153 



Reminiscences of School Life 

Sympathy is an essential element in the 
teacher's life. 

All teaching should be practical. 

To lead and feed the mind of pupils is 
the important mission of the teacher. 

Study the peculiarities and limitations 
of your pupils. 

Teach subjects and not books. 

Read professional books and papers. 

Make free use of a note-book. 

Do your part toward making teaching a 
profession. 

Don't quarrel with your school-board. 

Visit parents ^at their homes, form an in- 
timate acquaintance with them, and invite 
them to visit your school. 

Keep politics out of school. 

Be willing to be advised, but unwilling to 
be controlled. 

Make your school as pleasant and attrac- 
tive as possible. 

Encourage manly and ladylike behavior 
at all times and everywhere. 

Teach your pupils how to use books, 
and how to study. 

Celebrate and draw lessons from national 
holidays. i54 



Vital Educational Questions 

Draw lessons from the field, forest, and 
garden, and from the starry heavens. 

Wake up the minds of your pupils. 

Do nothing for the pupil that he can 
do for himself. 

Encourage pupils by praise where praise 
is due. 

Teach promptness and punctuality by 
example as well as by precept. 

Call the attention of your pupils to buds, 
blossoms, and birds, and to the insect world. 

Encourage the planting of trees around 
the schoolhouse ; they will live after you 
are gone. 

Consider home life in dealing with 
school life. 

Aim first of all to gain the confidence 
and affection of your pupils. 

Discriminate between the act and the 
motive of your pupils. 

Be both merciful and just. 

Say yes and no with emphasis, but 
pleasantly. 

Appeal to the pupil's nobility. 

Never threaten punishment for an un- 
committed act. 

155 



Reminiscences of School Life 

Teach morality and religious obligation. 

Have faith in your pupils. 

This last suggestion, like all the rest, is 
of great practical importance. In com- 
menting on it, I wish to bring to view 
the skilful teacher at work, and quote an 
example or two to illustrate. 

The teacher I have in mind wields a 
power whose strength is magical. She talks 
to her pupils as if she expected they desired 
to do right, and only needed to be shown how. 
She does expect it. The influence of her 
faith is felt by them, and they are elevated 
by it. If they fail, she expresses surprise 
and sorrow. A boy has carelessly written 
out his exercise. His teacher proposes to 
have him remain after school to copy it, 
not as an arbitrary and forced, but as a 
voluntary, punishment. She says to him : 
" I think you had better remain a few 
minutes to-night and copy this exercise. 
You probably did not realize how carelessly 
you had written it. This is not up to your 
best effort, and you will not be satisfied to 
have it stand as it is. Here is paper, pen 
and ink, and I know you will do this for 
156 



Vital Educational Questions 

my sake and your own." With a blush 
of shame the boy seats himself for his 
voluntary task. 

Another case in point : Jim, a heedless, 
reckless lad, commits an offence, and is 
called to account for it. Jim meets his 
confidential friend Jake, and tells him 
the story of his treatment, as follows. 
" Do yer know why I did n't lie out 
of it? Mebbe yer '11 think I was all- 
fired silly, but I jest could n't. My 
teacher called me up quiet-like and said : 
* Now, Jim, I know your faults and I know 
your virtues. You ain't no coward, Jim, 
and yer won't lie even if yer should have 
ter take a licken. Some boys will say the 
square thing when they think they won't 
git licked, and some boys will tell the 
square thing anyway. A fellow like you, 
who could grab a little kid out from under 
a runaway horse like you did poor Sammy 
Smithers, ain't agoin' to be no coward now. 
Whatever yer tells me, Jim, I '11 believe, 
and there the thing ends, for I won't ask no 
one else!' Then I said, 'Why don't yer 
ask Willie Perkins, as he alius does what 
157 



Reminiscences of School Life 

yer say ? ' But she said she \i believe me 
as quick as any feller in the school. Think 
of that, Jake ! And then I jest up and 
tolei her, and she said she was awful sorry 
I done it, for the principal said he 'd lick 
the boy, and course I W have to git licked. 
I said ' course,' and I tuck the Hcken. Feel 
kind o' sore outside, but awful quiet-Hke 
inside. I '11 do it again too. You bet she *s 
right when she says, ' Jim, yer have yer 
taults but yer ain't no coward ! ' Most folks 
think I 'm a tough ; she don't. She knows 
I wont lie, and I won't lie never no more." 
If the teacher would control and edu- 
cate her pupils, build up their character, 
and fit them for the duties and responsibil- 
ities of life, she must have faith in them, 
and treat them accordingly. 

The College or the University — 
Which? 

The author has been asked hundreds of 
times by anxious parents whether he ad- 
vised sending a boy to college or to a 
university, and the question is one which 
demands careful consideration. 
>5S 



Vital Educational Questions 

The American college is the fountain- 
head of all the educational institutions and 
influence of the nation. The civilizing and 
elevating power of the college is felt 
through the academies, seminaries, public 
and private schools which are established 
on the hillsides and in the valleys, in every 
State of the Union. It is the source of 
them all. 

Our fathers first planted the college, and 
afterwards the public free schools. The 
latter flowed from the former, as streams 
from a fountain. Elevating influences 
always descend from the higher to the 
lower, but never ascend from the lower to 
the higher. The profounder learning of 
the college gives tone and sentiment to 
the public mind, and nourishes and sustains 
popular education among the masses. 

The college matures and develops the 
science which is learned in the elementary 
and higher schools, and educates, directly 
or indirectly, all the teachers and authors 
in every department of learning. 

To illustrate : The ocean is the source 
of the water supply of the world. Without 
159 



Reminiscenees of School Life 

this fountain, we could have no rain, no 
springs, no rills, no rivulets, no rivers. 
These supply our wants directly ; but all 
the water that falls from the clouds and 
fills the springs and flowing streams must 
come first from the ocean. We do not fill 
our pitcher from the sea, but all the water 
we dip from the spring comes from the 
sea. Dry up the fountain and the spring 
will disappear. So it is with the college. 
Close its doors, and ere long the academies 
and public schools would be closed. In- 
struction would cease, and finally civiliza- 
tion would give place to semi-barbarism. 

The sun is the fountain and source of 
light. We might get on with twilight and 
moonlight ; but blot out the sun from the 
heavens, and even these sources of dim 
light would be extinguished, and total 
darkness ensue. So with the college, which 
is the source of intellectual and moral light. 
Destroy this luminary, and the darkness of 
ignorance and superstition would, in time, 
cover the nation as a dreary mantle. 

Still again, we are indebted to the college 
for all the influence that emanates from the 
i6o 



Vital Educational Questions 

learned professions. The college creates 
and sustains the profession of law, medi- 
cine, teaching, and the ministry. 

The university differs from the college 
in its aim and scope. It may instruct 
students whom it afterwards examines for a 
degree, as in Germany and the United 
States ; it may do little or no teaching, but 
simply examine and confer degrees, as in 
England. 

The University of Paris was the mother 
of universities, the precursor and exemplar 
of Oxford and Cambridge, as these institu- 
tions are of Harvard and Yale. The old 
Paris University disappeared in 1808, 
under the famous decree of Emperor 
Napoleon, leaving all the institutions of 
advanced learning in the nation under one 
name, — the University of France ; but 
the University of Paris was restored to its 
former prestige in 1896, under the auspices 
of the President of the French Republic. 
The inauguration was attended by a learned 
and illustrious audience. The addresses 
by the President of the University Council 
and the Minister of Public Instruction were 
II 161 



Reminiscences of School Life 

worthy of the great occasion ; they were 
full of enthusiasm, and of special interest 
to American educators. 

These addresses, which President Oilman 
of Johns Hopkins University has made the 
theme of an able and instructive magazine 
article, reveal the function of the modern 
university. It is not merely an institution 
for imparting special kinds of knowledge 
for professional purposes, but also for ad- 
vancing general knowledge and facilitating 
its acquirement by students whose aims are 
purely scientific. 

The points made in these lectures illus- 
trate the supreme advantages of the univer- 
sity. The result of uniting in one body all 
the chairs of superior instruction, with the 
introduction of their laboratories thirty 
years ago, was to make the institution 
thoroughly practical. The lectures, purely 
theoretical and mental, which were the 
method of imparting instruction in the old 
university, are only a memory in the new. 
The entire establishment is one immense 
factory, marvellous in its adaptation to the 
diversity of scientific work. 
162 



Vital Educational Questions 

The concentration in the modern univer- 
sity of subjects most diverse is intentionally- 
designed and adapted to give all its 
students opportunity to acquire that gen- 
eral knowledge which makes a truly culti- 
vated man ready to enter upon the study 
of his profession or the duties of active life. 
In this course of study the dominant 
thought is " the unity of knowledge, the 
value of ascertained truth, and the impor- 
tance of scientific methods of inquiry.'* 
The practical uses of knowledge are here 
emphasized. 

It is of great Interest to mark the mar- 
vellous improvements which have been 
made during the last fifty years in the pro- 
cess of evolution, in the oldest as well as in 
the youngest universities, in the old world 
as well as in the new. President Oilman, 
while he insists that American education 
is far behind European, that " American 
youth compared with those of foreign coun- 
tries have lost two or three years of time," 
shows the progress which has been made 
in American institutions, and points out 
the remedies for our deficiencies. 
163 



Reminiscences of School Life 

First, these improvements are manifest 
from the institutional point of view. " Dur- 
ing recent years," he says, "the Institu- 
tional has been considered more than the 
Industrial organization. Administration, 
finance, architecture, equipment have been 
the dominant themes. It is wonderful to 
survey the country from Bowdoin in the 
far northeast, with its gem of an art gallery, 
to Leland Stanford on the Pacific Coast, 
with its beautiful academic halls ; from 
Minneapolis and Chicago in the upper Mis- 
sissippi valley, to New Orleans and Austin 
(Texas), and observe that every strong in- 
stitution is growing stronger and richer." 

President Oilman claims that underlying 
all our deficiencies there is the want of 
organization and correlation. He says : 
" It is not likely that American education 
will be satisfactory to the most thoughtful 
people until it is far more systematic than 
at present, until the relations of all grades, 
from the kindergartens to the professional 
schools, are adjusted to one another by 
such a definite consensus as will be bind- 
ing like a common law." He looks to 
164 



Vital Educational Questions 

the improvements that are in progress to 
correct this evil. He adds that, " A recent 
writer for a new German cyclopaedia of 
education states that among nearly five 
hundred institutions in the United States 
which bear the name of college or uni- 
versity, there are nine entitled to rank with 
those of Europe." He thinks no careful 
American would have made this claim a 
generation ago. Mark here the fact 
that President Gilman regards the college 
and not the university as the disciplinary 
institution. 

The distinction between the university 
and the college is one which must occur to 
every parent who has a son seeking for 
a collegiate education. We have already 
considered the theoretical features of each, 
— but how shall we put these theories into 
practical use in selecting a seat of learning 
for our son ? In discussing this question, 
let us employ the word " university " in 
referring to such institutions as Harvard 
or Yale, and "college" in speaking of the 
smaller institutions, such as Dartmouth, 
Brown, Williams, or Amherst. 
165 



Reminiscences of School Life 

The university has a larger endowment 
than the college, a broader course of 
study, a larger, and in many cases an abler 
faculty, a more complete library, and a 
more extensive outfit in every depart- 
ment of instruction. 

The university, because of its larger 
numbers, offers a superior opportunity to 
its students in that development which 
results from a daily contact with many 
other students of many varying characteris- 
tics. In the university our sons will see 
before them all " sorts and conditions of 
men," — some rich, some poor ; some fast, 
some idle ; some as noble specimens of 
manhood as the world can produce. Con- 
cerning each of these classes they must 
form their own conclusions, assimilating 
the best, avoiding the worst; and their 
success or their failure in doing this will 
determine their success or their failure in 
life. All this is true in the college, but it 
must be to a lesser degree. In short, our 
sons will gain a knowledge of manhood 
in the university which they could but 
partially gain in the college. 
i66 



Vital Educational Questions 

The university, because of larger num- 
bers than in the college, contains a greater 
per cent of students whose friendships 
and associations we wish our sons to enjoy. 
These friendships have an immense bear- 
ing on the position which the students will 
occupy during their later life, and we owe 
it to them that they be given the best and 
widest opportunities in forming friendships. 
Further than this, the degree bestowed by 
the university will give its graduates a 
prestige which the college degree cannot 
give, and it is a parent's duty to give his 
son as perfect an equipment for his life- 
work as lies within his power. 

There is still a third gain in the influence 
of the university course, — that of encour- 
aging a thorough preliminary education 
for those who seek to enter the professions. 
It aims first to make men before it offers 
them to the professional schools, thus 
placing these institutions above the rank 
of trade schools. 

On the other hand, the college fills a 
most honored position in the educational 
world. President Oilman, in the article to 
167 



Reminiscences of School Life 

which reference has already been made, 
rejoices in " the recognition of an important 
distinction between the disciplinary period 
of liberal education commonly known in 
this country as ' the college,' and the freer 
opportunities of more advanced culture 
which belong to the university." It is 
here that the keynote of the college is 
struck, — its greatest power is as a dis- 
ciplinary institution. 

In a following chapter we have discussed 
the requirements of the preparatory school, 
but unfortunately it is not possible for all 
those who desire a collegiate education to 
come under the discipline which these lead- 
ing schools enforce. Circumstances are 
often such that without the college higher 
education must necessarily be abandoned. 
There is absolute need of this individual 
discipline at some educational period, and 
unless this has been received in the pre- 
paratory school, it must be gained from the 
college, — the university would not give 
it. President Gilman urges the great need 
of this personal instruction and influence. 
He says that the experience of the world 
1 68 



Vital Educational Questions 

has demonstrated that while there are mag- 
nificent and surprising exceptions to the 
rule, the average man is greatly helped by 
submission, during all his adolescence, to 
the precept, example, criticism, and sug- 
gestion of those who have, themselves, 
been well-trained. By such influences, 
character, physical, intellectual, and moral, 
is most likely to be harmoniously de- 
veloped." It appears to him that " a 
liberal education would be much more 
highly valued, and would be much more 
advantageous to the world, if a greater 
amount of personal submission attended 
its progress." He quotes Ralph Waldo 
Emerson's criticism on this point. " In- 
dividuality, reads the sign-post," said 
Emerson ; " persons by themselves, not 
persons enrolled in classes. Our actual 
mode of procedure aims to do for masses 
what cannot be done for masses, what must 
be done reverently one by one." 

The many opportunities now offered by 
the university to needy students to assist 
themselves, in addition to the liberal be- 
stowal of scholarships, are well shown by 
169 



Reminiscences of School Life 

the phamphlets issued by Harvard and 
Yale, and thus one of the greatest obsta- 
cles to a university education is removed. 
Undoubtedly the expense is greater, but 
the difference is at least equalled by the 
additional opportunities. It has practically 
been demonstrated that the mere fact that 
the student has not the available money 
in sight need not deter him from taking 
the course. 

The immensity of the university, the 
apparent merging of individuality into the 
great mass of the student world, the addi- 
tional temptations because of the lack of 
personal contact with the professors, and a 
thousand and one other doubts, tend to 
outbalance, in many cases, the manifest 
advantages. The parent, however, must 
not make the mistake of thinking that by 
restricting his son's environment he is 
preparing him to hold his own in the 
world, with which he is bound to come 
in contact only a few years later. The 
innate qualities of the boy will come to 
the surface sooner or latter, whether they 
be good or bad, and if the latter predom- 
170 



Vital Educational Questions 

inate, they will be quite as apparent in the 
college as in the university. 

To sum up the question, I would say 
that it all depends upon the boy and the 
previous education he has been able to 
obtain. If he has lost the development 
to be gained by the individual and recitation 
work of an ample preparation, the college 
is the better place for him ; if he has 
already had this experience, give him the 
greater opportunity for the all-around de- 
velopment which the university offers. 

Preparation for College and Life 
/. The Duty of the Home 

It is a natural question on whom the 
greatest responsibiHty falls in the prep- 
aration of pupils for college and for life. 
Let us glance first at the responsibility 
which falls upon the home. 

The school and the college are an ex- 
pansion of the family. The parent in the 
home is the Heaven-ordained disciplinarian 
of his children. The master in the school 
and the president in the college act under 



Reminiscences of School Life 

delegated authority, in loco parentis. Gov- 
ernment in all these relations is based 
upon the same principle, modified in ad- 
ministration only by the varying circum- 
stances of the situation. If all the families 
in the States were properly trained, we 
would have a rio;ht to infer that the chil- 
dren in the schools and the students in the 
academy, college, and university would 
be law-abiding and loyal to the authority 
under which they are placed. Hence 
when we meet with disorder and insubor- 
dination in the public schools, we naturally 
attribute the evil to laxity of family disci- 
pline. And when we hear of rioting and 
rebellion in the academy or college, as we 
so often do in these days, we say that the 
reckless and rebellious students were not 
properly governed in the home and in the 
school; and for the same reason we infer 
that the unsubdued children, pupils and 
students, are likely to become lawless 
citizens and candidates, in every commu- 
nity, for the prison and the gallows. 

It cannot be denied that the spirit of law- 
lessness and insubordination prevails now 
172 



Vital Educational Questions 

more extensively and alarmingly in our 
public institutions than in the earlier period 
of our country's history ; and it is equally 
true, that a great change has occurred in 
the theory and practice of family and 
school government. The discipline of our 
fathers and the teachers of their day was 
based upon authority ; obedience to whole- 
some rules and regulations was demanded 
and enforced ; but in many cases, in these 
days, persuasion is substituted for authority, 
and all power to control has been lost 
in family government. Hence when these 
children come into the school, the teacher, 
even if he is qualified and disposed to 
enforce unqualified obedience, is forbidden 
to do so by school officers, except by moral 
means. 

Now the question is, — Is there any con- 
nection between these two facts, as cause 
and effect ? May not this be the reason 
why some children become insubordinate 
pupils in the school, reckless students in 
the college, and lawless citizens in the 
community .? 

Professor Albion W. Small of the Uni- 
173 



Reminiscences of School Life 

versity of Chicago, in a recent discussion 
at the meeting of the National Educational 
Association at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ex- 
pressed forcibly his views upon this point. 
" I take square issue,** he said, " upon the 
question of enforcing wholesome laws in 
our schools. It is a mistaken policy, 
adopted by our school authorities, to leave 
to pupils themselves to ^y. the standard 
of their own conduct; to allow them to 
decide that only to be right to which they 
consent, and that only to be positively 
binding upon them to which they agree. 
Many schools have surrendered to unwise 
parents who have previously capitulated 
to their children. The abolition of cor- 
poral punishment is an incident in this 
surrender. This is virtual treason against 
the sovereignty of law. They tell us that 
it cultivates self-respect and self-control in 
pupils when school authorities shirk the 
duty of requiring propriety of conduct on 
pain of effective penalties. This flimsy 
claim springs either from ignorance or 
stupid sympathy, or it is a part and parcel 
of the cringing subserviency which has 
174 



Vital Educational Questions 

made much of our self-government a stench 
at home and a byword abroad. The 
schools should make patriots^ but by this 
policy they are doing much to make an- 
archists. This anarchism is inculcated by 
family and school government which stops 
short of compulsion in dealing with chil- 
dren before they have developed the habit 
of effective morality.'* 

Dr. Lyman Abbott of Brooklyn, New 
York, in a lecture on Education before the 
same body, fully indorsed Professor Small's 
theory. He said : "In order to educate the 
people for self-government, there must be 
lodged somewhere in the public school the 
power to enforce law, and compel the lawless 
and recalcitrant to obey the law; for one 
who has not learned to obey the law has 
not learned to exercise government." 

//. The Duty of the Preparatory 
School 

The endowed academy still survives, and 
will hold through all time an important 
place among our institutions of learning. 
The high school cannot, in all respects, fill 

175 



Reminiscences of School Life 

the place of the academy, but it is rapidly 
approaching it in efficiency. As a fitting 
school for college, no other can equal this 
well-endowed, well-furnished, and profes- 
sionally taught classical school. It does 
more than any other can do to awaken the 
mind, to inspire young men and women 
with lofty ambition, and to cultivate a taste 
for classical learning and for broad and 
extensive culture. It encourages social 
relations, the most favorable for securing 
the best results of a practical education. 
The modern academy is distinguished from 
the ancient only by the greater and better 
facilities it affords, and by its improved 
methods of instruction. 

Upon the efficiency of these secondary 
schools depends the standing and success 
of the college and the university, and of 
the classes which graduate from these insti- 
tutions in their Hfe work. Both the acad- 
emy and the college have manifestly made 
great progress during the last half century. 
They have become more thorough and 
more practical, and the better class have 
raised their standard of requirements for 
176 



Vital Educational Questions 

admission and graduation ; have extended 
their curriculum, and increased their corps 
of instructors. It has been stated that 
there are probably a hundred seats of learn- 
ing in the United States, to-day, better 
provided with material aids to education 
than Harvard or Yale were fifty years ago. 
But these universities still hold their ad- 
vanced position, and are constantly demand- 
ing of the preparatory schools, which are 
their principal feeders, better and still better 
preparation for entrance. The leading col- 
leges, such as Dartmouth, Brown, Amherst, 
and Williams, have also raised their stand- 
ard and require a corresponding advance in 
the preparatory schools which supply them 
with students. For ten years, from 1790 
to 1800, Dartmouth led Harvard, Yale, and 
Princeton in the number of graduates, but 
was unable to keep up successful com- 
petition for the want of funds and perhaps 
other reasons. 

Much excitement has recently been pro- 
duced by the demand of Harvard upon her 
preparatory schools for a better prepara- 
tion of their graduates in the English 
12 177 



Reminiscences of School Life 

language. Some of the masters of these 
schools resented the charge that they had 
not given sufficient attention to the study 
of our language, which led to a spirited 
discussion through the press and in 
teachers' conventions. But the facts show- 
ing the deficiency in students who had 
entered the university demonstrated the 
justice and importance of the criticism. 
It is a hopeful indication that our educators 
are giving attention to this subject. There 
is no reason why the English language 
should not be studied with as much care 
and thoroughness as the classics or the 
modern languages. Indeed, it is reasonable 
to claim that for English students a com- 
plete and practical knowledge of " our 
mother tongue " should be regarded as of 
the first importance. It is a lamentable 
fact that many students and graduates of 
our colleges and universities are unable to 
speak and write the English language 
correctly and skilfully. 

There is another point of great importance, 
especially to those who design to enter the 
university. The disciplinary period of a 
178 



Vital Educational Questions 

liberal education is an indispensable process 
in development. Study and recitation are 
the means by which all practical attainments 
are secured, and the recitation is, at least, 
as important as the study. Hence the 
class drill, during the disciplinary process, 
cannot be omitted without serious loss. 
The student should not only learn his les- 
son, but he should recite it under criticism. 

All practical lessons in life are learned 
by recitation. The child learns to walk 
and talk by walking and talking ; the me- 
chanic learns to use his tools by using 
them ; the musician learns to sing and play 
on the instrument ; and the orator to sway 
his audience by constant and long-con- 
tinued practice. The art of easy and 
graceful conversation and correct composi- 
tion is acquired only by conversing and 
composing. All these are recitations. 
Thus no lesson is thoroughly learned until 
the thought contained therein has been 
intelligently expressed in recitation. 

Now this disciplinary work belongs prop- 
erly to the preparatory school, and if it is 
not secured there the student is not fitted 
179 



Reminiscences of School Life 

to enter the university, to gain the finish- 
ing culture of a complete liberal education. 
Thus the modern preparatory school holds 
an important position in our educational 
system, and the college and the university 
have the right to expect and demand 
thorough preparatory work, and in this 
way only can they secure it. 

The Moral Side of School Life 
The moral side of school life should be 
especially emphasized as an essential part 
of education. In my forty years* practice 
I have endeavored to make this thought 
prominent. In my books previously writ- 
ten, I have strongly urged its claims upon 
teachers and parents, and through all my 
school life the conviction has grown upon 
me that the chief end of all education is to 
produce men and women morally trained 
for their life work. Physical culture is 
essential, but this alone may only fit the man 
for a prize-fighter, and make him a brute in 
human form. "Intellectual culture with- 
out the moral,'* some one has said, " only 
prepares the madman for suicide ; " while 
i8o 



Vital Educational Questions 

the proper training of the whole man, physi- 
cally, intellectually, and morally, gives him 
strength, power, and integrity, with ability 
to act well his part in whatever position in 
life he is called to labor. 

Scholarship is desirable as a result of 
school training, but its attainment is in no 
way hindered, but rather facilitated, by 
proper attention to moral culture. The 
true teacher is not only a scholar maker, 
but also a character builder. 

In reviewing his school life the author 
has cumulative evidence of the correctness 
of his theory and the importance of his 
practice. The children and students under 
his instruction fifty years ago are now fill- 
ing, or have filled, important and respon- 
sible positions in active life : in the family 
as parents, training another generation of 
children for life's duties and for immortal- 
ity ; in the school as teachers, shaping the 
course and moulding the character of aspir- 
ing youth who are ere long to take their 
places ; in the college, as presidents and 
professors, guiding young men and women 
who are to enter the learned professions ; 
i8i 



Reminiscences of School Life 

in every community all over the nation, as 
citizens of this great Republic, conducting 
the important affairs of State and Church, 
and discharging the duties of social life ; in 
the professions, exerting a controlling in- 
fluence in public affairs; in the halls of 
legislation, and on the bench of justice, 
making and administering laws that con- 
trol seventy millions of people and affect 
the weal or woe of the nation. 

Now what have given these thousands 
of men and women the power they have 
gained and exercised ? I answer, the 
manly and womanly character which was 
formed under the moral influence and in- 
struction exerted and given in the homes 
and schools of their childhood and youth. 
If any have failed, it was for the want of 
this important training. 

The moral includes the religious but not 
the sectarian teaching in schools. It Is not 
the parochial teaching of dogmatic theology, 
nor the careless reading of the Bible in our 
public schools, that is so much needed. 
It is, first of all, the influence of the living 
teacher whose life has been consecrated to 
182 



Vital Educational Questions 

the service of God and mankind, whose 
soul is aglow with enthusiasm, who is in 
love with his work and feels the responsi- 
bility of his position. 

The example of such a teacher has great 
moral power over his pupils. It uncon- 
sciously encourages the right and discour- 
ages the wrong in their daily lives, and 
moulds them into likeness. Such a teacher 
has the moral wants of his pupils constantly 
in view, and seeks and improves every 
opportunity to impart moral lessons. In- 
cidents occurring every day involve moral 
principles. He seizes upon them as texts 
for moral lessons, and enforces them by 
the examples before him. 

For instance, in dealing with school 
vices, the teacher has detected a pupil in 
falsehood. This is his opportunity to give 
a practical lecture before the whole school 
upon the cowardice, folly, and sin of lying. 
Another pupil is suspected of stealing, but 
it is not positive that he is the guilty party. 
The master brings the matter before the 
school, explains the nature and conse- 
quences of such an act upon the present 
1S3 



Reminiscences of School Life 

and future of the pupiFs life, and suggests, 
if the boy has repented and made restitu- 
tion, that he may not be reported to the 
school, but that the praiseworthiness of his 
repentence and confession may be commen- 
ded and emphasized. Profane language has 
been overheard on the playground. The 
master now speaks to the school upon the 
low vulgarity of profanity. He is called 
upon to settle a quarrel in which the 
strong has abused the weaker party, and 
he gives the school a practical lesson on 
individual rights and the manliness of 
generosity and kindness. He reads in the 
newspaper an account of one who res- 
cued a fellow-student from drowning, at 
the risk of his own life. Here is a 
text for an effective lesson on heroism. 
Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays 
occur, and are improved to impart lessons 
of patriotism. Thousands of cases like 
these, gathered from real life or from the 
school lessons of the day, give the teacher 
the opportunity to impart the great lessons 
of morality and to teach the duties the 
individual owes to God and his fellows. 
184 



Vital Educational Questions 

The great need of emphasis upon this 
subject is seen not only in the alarming 
prevalence of vice and crime among the 
lower classes, but also in the fraud, em- 
bezzlement, and treachery practised in busi- 
ness transactions, and the demagogism and 
falsehood in political life. This is a matter 
of vital importance to the public weal, and 
should awaken the interest and secure the 
co-operation of parents, citizens, and school 
officers to provide all necessary facilities for 
the training of teachers, and to see to it that 
none but those who are qualified for the 
responsible position shall be allowed to 
assume its duties. 



i8S 



VII 

OTHER EDUCATIONAL WORK 

ALL grades of schools and educa- 
tional institutions are inseparably 
connected. Each is a vital organ of the 
same body. Hence the teacher who is 
engaged in any department of school work 
should be interested in all departments. If 
he is wise and in earnest he ought to be too 
large a man to confine himself to the one 
institution over which he presides. The 
president of a college or the preceptor of an 
academy or seminary can do much in various 
ways to encourage laborers in other fields, 
and to aid in promoting the common cause. 
Taking this view of the subject and acting 
on this principle, while at the head of Thet- 
ford Academy, I encouraged educational 
meetings in town, county, and State, to 
awaken an interest in the public mind in 
behalf of the public schools, which were in 
a deplorable condition. I had the honor of 
i86 



Other Educational Work 

leading in the organization of the State 
Teachers' Association in Vermont, which 
has held its annual meetings and been an 
increasing power for good in the State for 
more than fifty years, and is to-day one of 
the most efficient organizations of its kind 
in the nation. 

At North Granville Seminary I took 
charge of a second-grade school for boys 
in the same village with my own school, 
and conducted normal classes of young 
ladies, under the Regents of the State of 
New York, for the better training of teach- 
ers of the public schools. 

At Glenwood Seminary I accepted the 
position of superintendent of the public 
schools of Brattleboro, and held the office 
for two years; and later I held the same 
office in Lebanon, New Hampshire, for the 
same length of time. While at Glenwood I 
was editor and proprietor of the " Vermont 
School Journal" for four years, published 
for the aid and encouragement of the 
teachers in the public schools of the State. 
Educational literature was scarce in those 
days. 

187 



Reminiscences of School Life 

At Tilden Seminary, while a member of 
the Legislature from the town of Lebanon, 
I introduced and carried through three bills 
in the interest of education, in the State of 
New Hampshire, viz., the bill requiring com- 
pulsory attendance in the public schools, 
the bill changing the district to the town 
system, and the bill establishing the State 
Normal School at Plymouth ; and for six 
years I was supervisor or trustee of that 
institution. 

During the forty years of my school life 
it was my constant aim to gather up the 
results of experience and study and publish 
the same for the benefit of others who might 
follow in my path. I first published " The 
Class Book of Prose and Poetry " with 
analytical tables, to be used as a text-book 
in parsing ; next followed " The Teachers* 
Manual," devoted largely to the discipline 
of the school, taken in its broadest sense ; 
" Home and School Training," showing the 
vital connection between the family and 
the school, and pointing out and urging the 
mutual and important duties of parents and 
teachers in their relations to each other and 
1 88 



Other Educational Work 

to their schools ; " School Keeping : How 
To Do It," prepared for young teachers 
and dealing with methods of discipline and 
instruction. These books have passed 
through several editions, and some of them 
have been used as text-books in academies, 
seminaries, and normal schools, and all 
have been read by thousands of practical 
teachers all over the nation. Twenty-five 
years ago, by request of General John 
Eaton, then at the head of the National 
Bureau at Washington, D. C, I prepared 
a monograph on school management for 
publication by that Bureau. This and the 
" Class Book of Prose and Poetry" have had 
a circulation of more than one hundred thou- 
sand copies each. Dr. Harris, now at the 
head of the National Bureau, told me that 
this monograph had been in more demand 
than any pamphlet the Bureau had ever pub- 
lished. During all these years I have been 
constantly writing on educational subjects 
for the public press, and frequently lectur- 
ing before teachers' institutes and other 
educational bodies. 

After forty years of constant strain upon 
189 



Reminiscences of School Life 

one set of nerves I began to feel the need 
of a change. I did not desire rest such as 
results from retirement from active life, but 
simply a change in the kind of labor which 
should require my mental and physical 
activity. Still I had no plans for securing 
this relief, or expectations of leaving my 
school in the near future. But in the 
summer of 1880 an earnest call came from 
Boston urging me to accept a position of 
partner in a well-known publishing com- 
pany located in that city. After due con- 
sideration, I accepted the offer, and made 
arrangements to enter upon my new work 
late in the autumn. 

This corporation was and is devoted 
entirely to educational work. It was not a 
school, but an educational publishing house. 
Hence the change did not remove me to a 
mere business life, but enabled me to con- 
tinue in the same service in a new field. 
This was exactly what I desired. Our two 
educational journals, one weekly and the 
other monthly, our educational books and 
aids to teachers, and our Educational 
Bureau, brought us and has kept us in 
190 



Other Educational Work 

constant touch with the schools and teachers 
of the whole nation. Hence, this was not 
only a new, but a more extended field of 
labor and usefulness. 

Educational journalism is a powerful 
agency in moulding and directing public 
opinion in the interest of public and private 
schools of every grade. It is a guide and a 
spring of inspiration to the teacher, super- 
visor, and superintendent of these schools, 
the most reliable source of information upon 
all educational subjects, and a bond of union 
between all educators and educational organ- 
izations. The publishing and distributing 
among teachers and school officers profes- 
sional books and monographs applies an 
important added force, working out the 
same results, and introducing the best 
methods of school discipline and instruc- 
tion. The Educational Bureau which this 
company established, the first and for seve- 
ral years the only one in New England, has 
proved to be an important aid, if not an 
indispensable agency, in the interest of 
teachers and school officers. It has enabled 

thousands of the one class to secure desir- 
191 



Reminiscences of School Life 

able positions, and the other class to provide 
competent teachers, adapted to the positions 
which they have to fill, at the least expense 
of time and money. In the Bureau thou- 
sands of applicants, for every grade and 
department of instruction, are registered, and 
their record and qualifications are on file for 
examination. Here superintendents and 
other school officers come to examine these 
records and to meet candidates, and are 
thus enabled to make wise selections to 
fill vacancies. 

There was at first a strong prejudice 
among school officers against teachers' 
bureaus, but their practical helpfulness has 
proved of so great benefit to all parties 
interested that this hostility has, by degrees, 
worn away, until now only a few ignorant 
or bigoted independents refuse to patronize 
them. So great a change has been wrought 
in public sentiment on this subject that 
instead of a solitary agency in New England 
and one or two in the other States, as was 
the case twenty years ago, there are more 
than a " baker's dozen " in the city of 
Boston. 5 

192 



Other Educational Work 

My active relations with the management 
of this corporation extended almost down to 
the present time, covering a period of fifteen 
years. For three years, since relinquishing 
my former labors as a partner, I have done 
continuous work on the editorial staff, and 
am still performing full service, at the age 
of eighty-three years. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed my long life 
of service, under the guidance of an All-wise 
Providence, and if I have been able to do 
anything to aid and encourage the thou- 
sands of youth who have come under my 
instructions and influence, in their efforts to 
gain an education and positions of honor 
and usefulness in the world ; if I have aided 
them in character-building and right living, 
or have in any way done anything calcu- 
lated to elevate the teachers* office, — I am 
amply paid for my service, and am sure 
that my laborious life has not been a failure. 
I am profoundly grateful to our Heavenly 
Father, whose guiding hand directs all our 
ways and " whose mercy endureth for ever." 



13 193 



